


Holiday Healing

by sbstevenson2



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 12:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16994610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbstevenson2/pseuds/sbstevenson2
Summary: Regina is a patient in Dr. Robin Locksley's hospital. Regina thinks a two week stay sounds awful, but quickly discovers this hospital isn't quite so terrible. Written for OutlawQueen Advent 2018.





	Holiday Healing

**Holiday Healing - Advent 2018**

 

_ Beep. _

Regina hears the sound, confused by what it could mean. 

_ Beep. _

She hears it again, clearly she wasn’t imagining it. Her eyebrows furrow, seeing nothing but the blackness behind her eyelids. They hurt. The thought alone of opening them is too much. She can hear voices, mumbled as they may be, somewhere off in the distance. There’s a cacophony of odors swirling around in her nostrils. It’s a combination of sterile bleach, latex, and an odd smell that can only be labeled as formaldehyde - it’s as if she can somehow smell sickness in the air. Is she ill? Is she in a hospital? The thoughts swirl in her mind, trying to wake up, open her eyes, and remember what’s happened.

The beeping sound is steady now in her eardrums, as are the voices all around her. The sounds surrounding her - the murmured talking, metal being rolled by, a woman’s voice over a speaker, monitors of all sorts - all sound as if her ears have been stuffed with cotton.

“Regina?”

She hears the voice from somewhere, by someone she doesn’t recognize. Regina tries again to open her eyes, the pain in her body starting to register in her mind’s eye. One eye feels swollen; she wants to reach up and touch it with her left hand but finds that she can’t. Her arm is too stiff, her pinky and ring finger on that hand feel weighed down. It feels like they’re bandaged and held together - did she break them? Images flood back to her mind the more conscious she becomes - flashes of his hand going across her cheek, arms reaching out to push her down the stairs, her fingers smashing into the stair railing at all the wrong angles. All she’d done was go Christmas shopping for her niece and nephew, but she’d done it without his permission. Jefferson never liked when she did things without his permission. 

“Regina?”

The voice seems closer now, or maybe just clearer, she doesn’t actually think this mystery person has gotten any closer. Her eyes blink open, and she hears a  _ That’s it! Keep trying, Regina _ from the same voice. It’s a woman, one that she doesn’t recognize, but she likes her voice. It’s comforting, somehow, encouraging her to not give up. Regina catches a glimpse of blonde, curly hair and a monitor behind her before her eyes close again. She reaches up, this time with her right hand, and feels a large bump surrounding her eye. It’s bound to be bruised, just like the last time.

She winces, dropping her hand back down onto the soft blanket that cocoons her in the bed. Her whole body is in pain, can feel bruises already forming on top of the ones that had just begun to heal. He’d promised the other week that he would never hit her again, he wasn’t sure what came over him (though she knows the alcohol raging through his system that night didn’t help either). She shouldn’t have believed Jefferson, but she did, until tonight when she came home, excited to show him the gifts she’d picked up. Christmas was just two weeks away, and she thought he’d be proud of the bargain she’d gotten on the gifts.

Regina opens her eyes again, this time much more slowly. She looks around; the blonde girl is still standing there, looking at her with a smile on her face. Regina rolls her head to the other side, spotting a man standing at the foot of her bed, clipboard in hand and a white lab coat over forest green scrubs. 

“Regina?” she hears again, this time able to look over at the girl. She gives her a faint smile as she hears her say, “I’m nurse Tinkerton, but you can call me Tink.”

Regina nods, telling her  _ It’s nice to meet you _ before looking around for something to drink. Her throat is dry, making her voice scratchy. She reaches up with her good hand to rub at her throat, and Nurse Tink must get the hint because she jerks into action, reaching for the water cup by her bedside and handing it to her. Regina thanks her, pressing the button on the bed’s rail to sit up better. 

She remembers the man she’d caught a glimpse of at the end of the bed and looks over to make sure she hadn’t imagined those blue eyes and scruffy face. “Who are you?”

He smiles at her, dimples forming on his cheeks as he explains, “I’m your doctor. Doctor Locksley, but you can just call me Robin.” He chuckles, looking over to the nurse. “I was never one for formalities.” 

She smiles softly at him, nodding and telling him, “I’m Regina,” she pauses, realizing how ridiculous that sounds - of course he knows who she is, he’s her doctor. “Though, you already knew that.”

He breathes out a light laugh, nodding and asking if she’s comfortable. Regina tells him she is, just confused why she’s here. She knows deep down that Jefferson never would’ve let her go to a hospital to get looked at. She’d tried going to the emergency room the first time he hit her, but he’d found her and taken her back home before they could even call her back to be seen. He claimed her bruises would heal on their own. 

This is different, though. This isn’t the emergency room, this is an actual hospital room, on a floor with nurses and doctors waiting on patients.

Tink speaks up, asking, “Do you know what happened, Regina?”

She shakes her head, not wanting to admit anything in case they don’t know about Jefferson and his dominating hands. Regina looks between Tink and Dr. Locksley— Robin— quickly, before lying and saying she doesn’t remember much. 

The nurse glances over to Robin before bringing her gaze back onto Regina. “There was a car accident.”

Regina’s eyebrows scrunch together - that doesn’t make sense. She’d already gotten home when Jefferson’s attack began, they never got into a car. She realizes it must be one of her boyfriend’s many lies, he’s good at those, so she plays along until she can figure out just what she can and cannot say.

“A-a car accident?” Regina asks, looking over at Robin. 

He nods as Tink explains, “A man came in here earlier, saying he found you at the scene of the wreck and brought you in.” The nurse shrugs her shoulder, looking a bit confused as she finishes with, “A bit odd since normally people wait at the accident scene, but…”

Regina looks to Robin quickly, trying to get a read on him. He hasn’t said much so far, letting Tink do most of the explaining. There’s something in his eyes, however, that makes her feel like he doesn’t quite believe this car accident story.  

“A man?” Regina asks, looking back over at her nurse. “What did he look like?” 

“Mmm,” Tink hums, looking up to the ceiling before bringing her eyes back down to meet Regina’s. “I didn’t get a really good look at him… short, brown hair, maybe green, or blue, eyes?”

Regina’s eyes widen slightly, confirming her suspicions that Jefferson brought her in. He must’ve hurt her worse than normal for him to take her to the hospital, can feel that it was more than his regular beating if the pain radiating all across her body is anything to go by. She straightens her face, hopefully quick enough that neither of them notice, and shifts her eyes over to Robin quickly, nervously. 

“Tink, why don’t you go get Regina a tray from the cafeteria?” he suggests, interrupting her thoughts by finally speaking more than a few words since she’s woken up. 

“Oh, I’m really not hungry,” she tells them, shaking her head.

She ate lunch today, had gotten home around dinner time from shopping but didn’t get a chance to eat anything before Jefferson started yelling at her for going out and not telling him what she was doing. She should be hungry, can tell from the darkness outside the hospital room window that it’s late, but she can’t stomach even the thought of food right now. 

“Ah,” Robin says lightly, a small smile on his face, “but perhaps you will be later.” 

She smiles softly. He’s right, she probably will be, but she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to keep anything down. She usually can’t when he’s hit her too many times in the stomach.

Tink straightens up, saying, “They’re probably closed by n-“

“No bother. Run down and see if you can get one. If not,” Robin pulls out a few dollar bills from his wallet and hands them to Tink, “go load up on snacks from the vending machine down the hall for her.” 

Tink smiles at her boss knowingly, taking the money. She looks over to Regina and gives her a comforting smile before exiting the room.

Regina thanks him softly as he moves from where he’s been standing at the foot of her bed to sit in the chair next to it. She twists her lip in apprehension, saying, “It’s probably against the rules to get a tray this late.”

Robin shrugs. “I own the hospital, so I have a feeling they might bend the rules just this once,” he says with a scrunch of his nose and a smirk, not a smug one, just playful, like he’s teasing her. 

“You…  _ own _ the hospital? But you’re also a doctor?”

He chuckles, explaining, “It’s family owned really, but I’m the only one who’s actually involved anymore. And as for also being a doctor... I was bored just sitting in an office all day. I missed the medicine part of it, missed interacting with people.”

She nods, saying that makes sense. She thinks it’s noble of him to not just sit in his office, but to actually participate and help people who are sick or injured.

Robin smiles, thanking her. “And what do you do, Regina?” 

She knows it’s a routine question, he’s just trying to get more information on her as his patient, but it’s nice… just being talked to; she can’t remember the last time someone asked her about, well,  _ her _ .

“Oh,” she stammers, breathing out, “I’m an event planner.” 

“That’s fantastic!” he declares sincerely. “My brother’s wife has always wanted to do that. What type of events do you plan for?”

She smiles; she loves talking about her job - it keeps people away from asking about her CEO boyfriend and all the  _ glamorous _ things that she must get for being with such a powerful man. “All types,” Regina explains with a slight shrug. “I do everything from birthday parties, to weddings, to graduation parties and even some business conventions.” 

Robin sits back in the chair, placing his clipboard on the side table. She glances at it, not really wanting to know what is in there - doesn’t exactly want to know the damage Jefferson put her body through - though she knows Robin will tell her eventually.

He asks her more questions - her favorite wedding she’s ever planned for, the weirdest event she’s been asked to do, to which she laughs (as much as she can with the pain in her chest), and says, “There was a baby shower for a pregnant golden retriever one time that I thought was cute… but a bit odd.”

Robin tilts his head in confusion,  _ a baby shower for a dog?! _ slipping from his lips as he laughs, shaking his head. 

She smiles, leaning her head back against her pillow. The pain in her chest worsening the longer she lays here. “Robin?” she asks, turning her head to look at him. “What are my injuries?”

{*************************}

Robin stops laughing at the mental image of a puppy shower and looks at her seriously. He breathes out, reaching for her medical file he’d placed on her bedside table. Flipping it open, he looks back at her. He stands, walking closer to the bed as he reads off, “Fractured fingers,” and points to her two last digits held together in a silver sleeve and wrapped together with a bandage, “lacerations on your abdomen, along with smaller cuts and bruises on your arms.” He looks up, noting the way she bites nervously on her lip. “And you broke several ribs, one of which punctured your lung, causing a slight collapse.”

Regina’s brown eyes widen in shock then, lifting her eyes to look at him. “What?”

He looks down at her sympathetically, nodding his head slowly as he explains that they had to rush her to a room as soon as she was brought in to repair it. “Your rib caused a minor pneumothorax, which is essentially air between your lung and chest wall which caused the lung to collapse.” He tells her they had to place a chest tube in her, releasing the pressure and removing the excess air, which explains the pain she feels on her side, near her upper ribs. “We’ll have to check it in a few days,” he explains, “and see how it’s doing. There’s a chance we will have to go in again and release more, but it won’t be as bad.” Robin can see the worry on her face, so he rushes to assure her that it isn’t as severe as it sounds. It’s serious, yes, but the next time they relieve some of the excess air, it might only need to be released with a needle instead of surgery. “We won’t know until we can check after your chest has had a few days to recover.”

Regina lets out a deep breath, a pain clearly radiating in her chest as she does so with the way she winces. She leans her head deeply against her pillow again, breathing out more slowly this time. “Wow,” she says, almost to herself, “I didn’t know it was that bad.”

Robin pulls his lips in, licking them, before saying he wanted to give her a chance to wake up and orient herself to her surroundings before telling her everything. Getting news that your lung collapsed and you have to stay in the hospital for several more days isn’t something to greet someone with, after all.

She shakes her head, “No, I’m glad you did. I would’ve freaked out if you told me right off the bat. Thank you.”

He smiles, sitting back down in the chair. He looks at the clock; it’s past midnight now. She’d been brought in hours ago, but she’d been asleep for a while after the procedure. Robin isn’t sure how to bring this up, but he knows, or at least has a very good suspicion that her injuries didn’t come from a car accident. He’s been around in the medical field long enough to recognize domestic abuse when he sees it, and every good doctor he’s ever studied under always said more victims of abuse wish their doctor had asked, had spoken up and helped them. 

Clearing his throat, he says, “I’ve seen situations like this before, Regina…”

She looks at him sharply, almost as if she’s offended. That’s the last thing he wants to do; she’s his patient and he’s quite enjoyed talking to her tonight, despite the trauma her body has gone through. “That man didn’t find you at a car accident, did he?” She looks down at her hands, fiddling with the blanket that rests over her legs. “If you don’t mind me asking… who is he?”

Regina is hesitant, rolling her eyes up to meet his before looking back down. She goes to speak but falters, lifting her eyes to look at the clock, then the doorway, muttering something about  _ Where’s that nurse?  _ and  _ How long does it take to get food from a vending machine? _

Eventually, she sighs, presumably realizing he’s not going to let the subject drop. His studies and experience have told him to be patient, to wait people out until they are ready to open up. She looks back at him, her eyes misted over as she meets his blue ones, and admits, “My boyfriend Jefferson is the one who brought me in… and there was no accident.”

She doesn’t tell him much, but it’s enough for now. Regina tells him how her boyfriend is a powerful man, a CEO of a large company. She tells him she’d gone to get Christmas gifts for her step-sister’s children but hadn’t asked Jefferson’s permission. Robin tries hard not to roll his eyes at that, wondering how any man could ever think that a woman needs their permission to do anything. It certainly isn’t how he’d treat any woman he was lucky enough to love. “We were standing near the top of the stairs… I was pulling toys out of the bags to show him as I tried to go to our bedroom,” she swallows, looking away and blinking back those tears she’s done so well at keeping in so far. “He grabbed my arms, making me drop their toys down the stairs, yelling and saying I should’ve asked him if I could go out tonight. He had a dinner meeting with a client, which he never told me about, and he wanted me to be there.” She tells him how she’d apologized, but Jefferson didn’t care. He slapped her, hitting her in the stomach before pushing her down the stairs. “That’s the last thing I remember before waking up here.”

Robin shakes his head lightly, asking, “How long has this been going on?”

“We’ve been together for a few years… but he didn’t start hitting me until a few weeks ago,” she sighs, shaking her head, “a month maybe. I’m not sure what started it, but he’s apologized every time, saying he’d never do it again.”

“Regina,” he says sincerely, probably more genuine than he should be for a new patient, but he likes Regina — she’s a nice woman, and she certainly doesn’t deserve the shit her boyfriend has put her through lately. “My best mate, Emma, is a cop. I can call her if you want someone to talk to. She can h—”

“No,” Regina states, cutting him off before he can even finish his sentence. “I can’t press charges.”

Robin sighs, closing his eyes briefly, before opening them again. He knows this man needs to be charged, any man who lays a finger on a woman should be punished, but he’ll let it drop for now. “Alright,” he breathes. He needs Regina to trust him more before he can bring it up again, he thinks. So for now, he’ll talk about something else, distracting her from thoughts of her abuser. “Well,” he says, standing up. “You’re going to have to be here for a week or two for recovery, so I hope our food is up to your liking.”

She smiles, breathing out a soft giggle. “You own the place, so I’d hope you keep good food around here.”

Robin laughs, appreciating her sense of humor despite what’s happened to her. He collects his file from the table and taps his nose before letting out a cheeky, “Right you are!”

They smile at each other, both turning their heads when Tink walks back in, hands full of snacks. Both of them chuckle, Robin shaking his head at his favorite nurse. 

“Here you go!” Tink exclaims, dumping the various bags of chips and candy on the table. “I wasn’t sure what you like, so I just grabbed everything.”

Robin smiles, stretching out his hand for his left over money. Tink raises her eyebrows playfully, looking between the pile of food, Regina, and then back to him. “Think again, boss man,” the girl laughs, turning to wink at Regina.

Regina laughs at that, bringing a hand to her chest. He spins on his heel, looking at her in mock astonishment. “That’ll teach me,” he jokes, patting Tink on the shoulder. He wishes Regina goodnight, saying he’ll be back by tomorrow to check on her before making his exit and leaving Tink to go over Regina’s recovery regimen that she’ll undergo over the next two weeks.

{*************************} 

Three days later and Regina is feeling a bit better. The bump around her eye has already started to go down, the swelling on her pinky is decreasing and the cuts on her abdomen are healing. Her chest is still in pain when she talks to the nurses or Robin, laughs at something he’s said, or coughs too hard, but she can tell even that is slowly starting to fade away (the pain medication they have pumping through her system helps, too). They are going to go in tomorrow with the needle and remove some of the air that was beginning to gather on her lungs and run some tests to check her lung capacity. 

The last few days have actually been nice — despite her injuries — being able to rest, relax and talk with people who seem to genuinely care about her. 

Robin has been great; he reminds her of her best friend, Daniel, growing up. He’s easy to talk to, funny, and very interesting. She’s learned that he comes from a family of doctors, except his mom who was a school teacher, and he has a brother named John. His brother has two kids, around the same age as her step-sister’s children. 

“How’s your brother?” Regina asks him after he finishes her breathing check. She has to blow into an incentive spirometer every few times he comes by, attempting to get the yellow piece to reach the specified blue number. She’s been successful a few times, Robin encouraging her that she’s doing a great job. 

He smiles, saying, “He’s great! His wife, Ruby, is the one who I told you wants to get into event planning.” She nods, saying she remembers. “She just got hired by this local pet shop to do some big opening event for their first day of business.”

“That’s wonderful,” she declares happily, telling him that’s a good starting place for her. “It’s always good to start with smaller businesses and work your way up.”

Her face falls, thinking of how working her way up to bigger clients is exactly how she’d gotten into a relationship with Jefferson. He was CEO of a large bank corporation who had hired her to coordinate their annual Christmas party. She’d done an amazing job, if she does say so herself, decorating the entire ballroom where the party was held in silver and dark blues, giving it a wintery feel while still being upscale. 

She’d stayed for the event, making sure there was enough food and the DJ was playing the right kind of music, and Jefferson had caught her eye. He was handsome, and friendly, making everyone around him laugh. He’d spotted her from across the room, smiling in her direction whenever he caught her eye. He’d made his way over to where she stood in the corner, telling her a woman as beautiful as her didn’t deserve to hide away in the dark — she needed to be seen. They’d started dating just after the new year and had been together ever since. 

Regina straightens her face, not wanting Robin to notice. He’s very observant, she’s noticed, so she just knows he’ll question her about it. 

“What is it?” he asks with concern in his voice, sitting on the edge of her bed by her feet. She rolls her eyes at just how right she’d been about his worry. 

“It’s nothing,” she lies, averting her gaze away from his. His eyes are like crystalized daggers, always staring at her with an intensity she’s not used to. She likes it, it makes her feel connected, but she’s just not used to that feeling.

He deadpans her, saying she can’t lie — he’s gotten to know her well these last few days, and he knows something is wrong. 

She smiles, shaking her head as she breathes out a soft laugh through her nostrils. “I just met Jefferson at one of my events, talking about work made me remember that night.”

Robin’s eyebrows furrow as he apologizes, eyes dropping to his folded hands in his lap. She shakes her head again, assuring him it’s fine. After a beat of silence, Robin looks up, saying hesitantly, “Can I ask you something, though? About Jefferson?”

She breathes in, letting it out slowly as she nods. “Sure.”

“I know you said before that it hasn’t been going on for long. What do you think started it all?”

Regina twists her lips, crossing her arms over her stomach and shifting to get more comfortable in the bed. “I’m not sure.” She tells him again how she’s been dating him for three years, and he never seemed the type to hit a woman. Jefferson was always patient, never got upset about anything. “He’s been working on this massive merger deal the last few months,” she tells him, thinking back to how different he’d been acting since he started working with his new clients. “He’s been working a lot later than normal and going in much earlier than he usually does.”

Regina sighs, playing with the tape connecting her fractured fingers together and explaining that the first time it happened, “It was just a single punch to my face.” He was drunk and angry that she’d worn the red dress to dinner with his new client instead of the black one. “He said it drew too much attention away from him and their deal.”

Robin scowls slightly, saying, “Drunk or not, you don’t hit a woman,” and Regina tilts her head, agreeing. 

She shrugs, telling him that Jefferson had apologized profusely the next morning, after spending the entire night rushing her out of the ER before a doctor could see her, taking her home and yelling at her before slamming an ice pack on the counter and telling her to leave that on there. “The next morning he cried, saying he would never do it again,” she sighs, a lump forming in her throat as she says she actually believed him. He’d always been so honest, she just chalked it up to being a drunken mistake. 

She hid the bruise as best as possible over the next few weeks, telling her employees that she’d tripped and hit her face on a doorway. They’d laughed it off, easily believing her story. 

“But then he did it again, obviously,” Robin says gently, pointing to the machines around her. 

Regina nods slowly, saying he’d hurt her a few more times before the other night. “I think he learned his lesson with my face, knowing it caused too many people to ask what happened,” she tells him. “He would grab my arms tightly, leaving his fingerprints, or he’d hit my stomach knowing those bruises could be covered up with clothing.”

Robin breathes out, patting her leg that’s under the blanket before bringing his hand back to his lap. “What happened this last time?”

Taking another deep breath, pushing her emotions down, she explains again about going Christmas shopping for Neal and Eva, her step-sister’s kids. “I was so excited,” she chuckles dryly, “I had gotten the last of the  _ Jake and the Neverland Pirates _ figurines that Neal wanted,  _ and _ it was on sale!”

Robin smiles at that, nodding and telling her how his nephew had wanted one but he wasn’t sure John had been able to find it yet. “You should tell him to check Marco’s Workshop off of Main Street. That’s where I was, and he had a few left.”

He nods appreciatively, saying he’ll have to text him later and let him know. Regina smiles, thinking how nice this is. She’s opened up about Jefferson, but Robin has that effect on her for some reason — she feels like she can tell him anything. Despite that, it’s relaxing, spending the afternoon talking about their families and Christmas toys. It makes her forget the hell that’s waiting for her at home when she leaves here. She makes a mental note to ask Tink to borrow her iPad so she can search for cheap apartments that are available this time of year. There’s no way she’s going back to that mansion with Jefferson, not after putting her through this. This was the last straw. Clearly his anger issues aren’t just a one time thing, not after four or five different beatings.

Just then, there’s a knock on the door and a woman with long, blonde hair comes in. She’s wearing jeans with tall, black boots and red leather jacket. Surely it’s not thick enough to keep the cold outside off her skin, Regina thinks, wondering about her jeans and light sweater she was wearing when she was brought in. She’s been in these cotton pajamas pants and t-shirt Tink had brought to her yesterday morning, saying they looked about the same size so she’d grabbed her a pair from home. Tink had also brought her a razor, some shampoo and a bottle of body wash to use here so she didn’t smell like a hospital all the time. Regina had laughed, thanking the girl.

“Oh,” Robin says, looking back over his shoulder. “Emma, come on in.”

He looks back over to Regina, smiling and introducing the girl. “This is my friend Emma that I told you about.”

Regina looks at him, no emotion on her face, as she sinks her back a bit deeper into her pillows. “I told you I wasn’t pressing charges,” she says sternly, looking between her doctor and this stranger. 

“I’m not here for that,” Emma clarifies, holding her hands up in surrender. “I’m just here to talk.” Regina cuts her eyes from the blonde over to Robin, and he smiles sheepishly, explaining that Emma is a survivor of domestic violence also, and he just thought it’d be nice to have someone to talk to. 

She rolls her eyes, thinking to herself how she has someone to talk to —  _ him _ — and it’s been fine. 

Emma makes herself at home, uninvited, plopping herself into the chair beside Regina’s bed and crossing one ankle over the other. She claps her hands together, setting them in her lap. Regina raises her eyebrows, looking between the two of them, wondering if they actually expect her to talk. 

Emma sits up, bending her legs and resting her elbows on her knees. She smiles, telling Regina her own story of survival. Regina listens, relaxing a bit as she hears how Emma was abused for years by her husband — a man who owned a bar and always had a temper, even though the blonde never thought he’d take it out on her. “Until one night he did,” she tells her and Robin. Emma goes on, saying it started small, just a few hits or punches to the stomach, until it escalated and Emma found herself in the emergency room more than she was in her own home. 

Regina sighs, sympathetic to any woman’s struggle to get out of a bad situation. She looks over to Robin who’s listening intently to Emma’s story, and she catches his eye. He gives her a small smile, and she turns her eyes back to Emma. She finishes her story, saying she finally met, “this annoyingly persistent doctor who encouraged me to seek help and press charges.” Emma smirks as she says it, looking over to Robin who is trying to hide a grin. “He really does care, Regina,” she tells her. “We both just want to help.”

Regina scoffs. “You don’t even know me,” she bites out, pointing to the woman. “Why do you care so much?”

“Because I’ve been exactly where you are,” she tells her just as fiercely. “Except worse. I had two broken legs, a broken arm and a concussion the last time he got to me.”

Regina huffs, crossing her arms tighter around her chest, mindful of her pinky. “I know you want me to press charges,” she says quietly, looking over to Robin. “But I can’t.” She tears up then, closing her eyes to reign them back in. She refuses to cry. She’s stronger than this, brave, she can get through these tough conversations. 

“Why not?” Emma asks, empathetically but annoyingly. 

She opens her eyes, looking back to Robin. “I’m too afraid — too ashamed,” she admits softly. 

Robin reaches over, giving her shin a soft squeeze. He looks at her sympathetically, his eyes silently supporting her. She breathes in, somehow finding solace in those blue eyes of his. “Ashamed of what?” he asks.

“Of what everyone will think,” she mumbles, twirling a piece of her long, raven hair around her finger before letting it drop. She huffs, saying, “My mother never liked Jefferson, but I always defended him, telling her how amazing and wonderful he was. I can’t admit to her that she was right.”

Robin looks to Emma, who looks ready to say something, and he shakes his head. She likes that about Robin, he doesn’t push her farther than she’s comfortable. He’s a bit nosy, sure, but she understands that he’s just trying to help. He’s honorable, a helper through and through, and she can’t fault him for that. 

Emma nods, sitting back into the chair and asking less invasive questions, just getting to know her. She doesn’t exactly like this woman, but she’s slowly cracking through to Regina’s softer side the longer she sits and talks about the latest holiday movies and if they’ve seen the most recent football game.

After a while, Emma makes her exit, saying she’s going to go say hello to Tink. Robin nods, telling Regina he has to go check on some more of his patients. “I’ll be back though, yeah?"

Regina smiles and nods, saying dryly, “I’ll be here,” which causes Robin to laugh lightly.

“Good,” he says with a smile and a wink before walking out of her room.

{*************************}

A few hours later, Robin is finishing up with his set of rounds. He’d checked on his little old lady patient, Mrs. Lucas, who was recovering from a hernia surgery, and he’s also stopped by to see a young man who had needed plastic surgery to fix some damage done to his face from a car accident.

He stops by the nurses’ station when he sees Emma is still there, talking to Tink and two other nurses — Mulan and Tiana. He chats with them briefly before he heads back over to check on Regina. 

“She’s doing really well,” Tink affirms at the mention of Regina’s name, smiling at the other nurses as they grab their folders and head off to check on their patients. “Seems to be healing nicely.”

Robin nods with a smile, telling his nurse how he’d done her breathing exercise this morning with her and she was making a lot of progress. They talk with Emma, her saying how she wants to come by again sometime and talk with Regina alone. “She reminds me a lot of how I was before you convinced me to press charges against Killian,” she tells Robin. 

He nods, saying he thought that too. “She’s closed off behind these giant walls but I can already see them tumbling the more I get to know her,” he tells the two women. “I’m hoping she’ll change her mind soon.”

Emma and Tink nod, looking at each other. Robin tells them he’s going to go check her breathing again, saying, “With any luck, we won’t have to go in with a needle tomorrow like we thought and drain the excess air.”

“That’s gr—” before Tink can finish her sentence, an alarm at the desk begins to go off. Tink stands in a hurry, her eyes flashing diagonally across the hall over to Regina’s room. Robin stands from where he’d been leaning on the desk, asking Tink what’s wrong.

“It’s Regina’s room!” she shouts, slinging her stethoscope around her neck, jogging in the direction of his favorite patient. “Her heart rate is spiking!” 

Robin runs with Tink, Emma a few steps behind them, rushing into Regina’s room. The sight before him stops him momentarily in his tracks, not expecting to see a man in there. 

Jefferson, he can only assume, from the way his hand is wrapped around Regina’s throat, another hand pressing on her abdomen where he knows she still has healing wounds. 

“Jefferson,” Regina chokes out, her arms raising to scratch and claw at his hands. “You’re hurting me.”

“Good!” he screams, as Robin runs over to the bed, pulling on the man’s shoulders. He’s stronger than he looks, whipping around to shove Robin off of him. Regina takes a deep breath, clutching her chest. “Get off me!” Jefferson shouts, pushing Robin back a few steps, slamming him into Emma. She stumbles backwards, pressing her palms to Robin’s shoulder blades to stop his trajectory. 

His eyes are crazed as he turns back, reaching for Regina’s throat again and threatening lowly to kill her when she gets out of this fucking hospital. “Hey!” Robin shouts, planting his feet this time so he can’t be moved. He grabs Jefferson’s shoulders as Tink slinks along the wall, trying to get to the other side of Regina. Emma is beside him, pulling on Jefferson’s other shoulder. “That’s enough!”

They struggle for a minute, Jefferson shoving and slashing around, trying his hardest to get out of the hold Robin and Emma have on him. 

Robin can hear Regina’s cries, coughing through her pain as she tries to catch her breath. Emma shouts over Jefferson’s growls, “Go check on Regina, I got him!” She whips out her handcuffs from her back pocket, slamming the man against the wall and slapping the metal around his wrists as she holds them together behind Jefferson’s back. 

She hauls him off the wall by his wrists, reading him his rights as she marches him out into the hallway and away from Regina. 

Robin sits on the end of her bed again, like he’d been doing just this morning, trying to comfort her along with Tink. The nurse is by her bedside in the leather chair, holding Regina’s trembling hands.

Robin reaches over, taking her right hand from Tink’s embrace. “It’s alright, Regina,” he vows to her. “He’s gone. Look, look, look,” he urges hurriedly, turning his eyes to the hallway, “Emma is taking him away right now.” She looks over slowly and sees him being taken off, sighing a relieved breath as she removes her hand from Tink’s, reaching up to wipe the pained tears from her cheeks. “You never have to see him again,” he whispers, rubbing his thumb along the back of her hand.

He looks over to Tink, nodding in silent communication that he’ll sit there for a while. Tink smiles, telling Regina she has to go check on some other patients. “But don’t hesitate to call for me if you need me.”

“Thank you, Tink,” Regina says around the lump in her throat, giving the woman a comfortable smile. “I will.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes, calming their rapidly beating heart rates. Robin thinks back to what just happened and makes a mental note to talk with security. He’ll pull the hallway cameras and get security to put Jefferson’s picture up. He’ll never step foot in his hospital again as long as Regina is his patient. Not that it should be a problem now, he’s positive after that show of aggression, Emma will have his ass locked up sooner than he can say the alphabet. 

“Thank you,” she whispers, breaking their silence. She reaches up the wipe the last of her tears away as he smiles up at her, standing and moving into the chair Tink had been sitting in moments ago. 

“Think nothing of it,” he tells her, picking up her left hand, simultaneously checking her bandaged fingers to make sure Jefferson hadn’t messed it up. He’s not sure why he feels the need to hold her hand, it just feels right. She doesn’t seem to mind, squeezing it slightly in comfort; he thinks if she did, she’s brave enough to pull it away. 

She breathes out a deep breath, reaching up to poke around her stomach. He watches the movement, asking to see the wound. Regina nods, shifting around on the mattress to shimmy her t-shirt up, holding it under her breasts.

He stands, peering over to look more closely at her abdomen. The small cuts are fine, still healing, but the biggest gash has reopened, blood seeping through to the gauze that covers it. Robin excuses himself, walking quickly to grab the supplies. 

He comes back, cleaning the wound after telling her, “This’ll sting a bit.”

She hisses when he dabs the sterilizer onto her skin, reaching up to grab at his wrist out of reflex. He smiles over at her comfortingly. “Sorry about that.”

Regina chuckles to herself, shaking her head. “It’s alright — you did warn me.”

He swipes around the gash, clearing the excess liquid and places fresh gauze onto the abrasion. As he’s taping down the sides of the gauze, he hears her admit quietly, “That was really scary.”

Robin cleans up his supplies, setting the bottle of cleanser on the table. He nods, holding up his hands and signaling toward the bathroom to show her he needs to wash his hands.

She smiles and nods as he works his way to her bathroom. 

Once finished, he sits down in the chair beside her bed, picking up her hand and giving it a friendly squeeze. “I’m sorry he got in here,” he tell her, saying he’s going to heighten security and get his picture out to his employees.

Regina nods solemnly, looking over to Robin with tears misting over her brown eyes. She shrugs, sniffling as she fights back her tears. She’s so strong, so brave, and he wishes she would just let herself cry. He tells her that, promising he’s a  _ no judgement zone _ , which makes her giggle wetly. She tells him she doesn’t want to waste any more tears over Jefferson, and he nods with an  _ Alright. _

“Hey,” he says suddenly, wanting to change the subject and get her mind off of everything that’s happened tonight. “Yesterday you mentioned you grew up in Virginia before moving here. So what brought you to Maine?”

She smiles, gratitude shining in her eyes at the change of topic. Regina sighs, settling deeper into her pillow. Her bed is set into a sitting position, better for her lungs that way, but she adjusts the pillows, sinking her back into them. “I moved up here for college,” she clarifies, going on to say that her best friend, Kathryn, wanted to move as far away as possible from her parents. Regina had always wanted to live up north, so they decided to move together. “We both got accepted into the University of Maine and ended up living in a dorm together our freshman year.”

“Ah,” he sighs, chuckling out a, “dorm living.”

“Glamorous, isn’t it?” she replies sarcastically, quirking an eyebrow in his direction. Regina tells him that they lived on campus their first year, then got an apartment together for the remainder of their time as students. “Once we graduated, Kathryn moved to Vermont with her fiancé, Frederick, and I moved just a few hours east of there to Storybrooke.” 

He nods, asking if Storybrooke was better for event planning than Orono, and she nods, clearly impressed that he knows what city the college is in. “Storybrooke is a little bit bigger, more businesses to cater to, so it just made sense,” she proclaims, shrugging with a small smile on her face. “Plus I loved the quaint downtown nestled between all the busy city life. It was a nice juxtaposition.” She looks past his shoulder, out the window as she tells him, “If you want the big, busy, city life, you can have that here, and if you want to spend an afternoon at a small diner and window shopping antique shops, you just head downtown. It’s lovely.”

Robin smiles, agreeing with her. He tells her that is one thing he loves about their town as well. “You can feel like you’re in this remote, tiny, little town from a movie, or go a little further out and feel like you’re practically in a metropolis.”

She nods, saying, “What about you? How’d you end up in Storybrooke?”

“Ah,” he sighs, settling into the chair. “I moved here in high school, luckily they had one of the top medical schools as well, and fell in love with the city for the same reason you did,” he smiles. “It’s big enough to give you plenty to do, but I do love spending lazy Saturdays downtown. Have you ever been to Granny’s?”

“Oh,” she gasps, dramatically pulling a hand to her heart. “I  _ love _ that place."

Robin chuckles, agreeing and saying they have the best lasagna in town. Regina nods, narrowing her eyes and saying, “The best except mine.”

“You cook?” he asks, impressed that she isn’t like so many other big city women who seem to just order take out or go out to eat every night of the week.

She smiles. “I love to cook. It’s a nice way to relax after a long day of dealing with people. I can just get away, me and the kitchen with some music on, no one else around.” She sighs, closing her eyes as if reliving a memory. 

“Other than lasagna, what do you like to cook?”

Regina opens her eyes, smiling brightly over at him. He’s glad to see she’s in much better spirits now that he’s gotten her mind off of Jefferson’s attack. “I make a mean enchilada,” she laughs, tucking a piece of her raven hair behind her ears.

She reaches up, combing her hands through her hair and pulling the top half onto her head, twisting it into a bun on the top of her head. She loops her hairband around it, running her fingers through the half that still hangs down when she finishes, and he’s impressed she could do that with two fingers still taped together. “I love Mexican food,” he tells her, watching her play with her hair. “It’s probably my favorite.”

Regina leans back against her pillows, smiling over at him again. “Me, too.” She tells him how she’d gone to Mexico one time in college with Kathryn and some friends and she’d had the most delicious food there — she’d tried for months to recreate the tapas they’d experienced at the resort, “And I came close!” she beams, “But never quite got it right.” She shrugs, saying her tapas are still  _ pretty damn good _ . He smiles, having no doubt about that. 

“Speaking of fun trips,” he says, watching as she twists her body so it’s facing him more directly. He places one leg over the other, bending his knee so it presses into the arm of the chair. “What’s the best vacation you’ve ever been on? Or was Mexico the best?”

Her eyebrows pinch together playfully, her nose scrunching in the adorable way that it does. “Um,” she thinks with an airy giggle blown out through her nose, “Probably when I went to Paris with my step-sister, Mary Margaret.” He smiles, matching the one she’s displaying, and saying he’s never been, but he hears it’s wonderful. 

“Oh, it’s amazing,” she gushes, her eyes lighting up brighter than he’s ever seen them before. “You definitely need to go at some point.” She tells him Paris in the fall is fantastically gorgeous, great for taking stellar scenery photos. He beams even brighter at that. He’d told her yesterday during one of their many talks how he had a hidden passion for photography. He loved to take walks around the city, finding nooks and crannies no one knew about, then capturing them on film. 

“I’ll have to check it out one of these days,” he says sincerely. “Thank you, Regina.”

She smiles, laying her head back on her pillow. She closes her eyes for the briefest of seconds, then opens them again. “What about you?” she asks. “What was your favorite vacation?”

Robin chuckles, sitting back again in the chair, stretching his legs out and crossing one ankle over the other. He claps his hands together, placing them behind his head. “Ah,” he laughs. “That would be the time John and I went to Jamaica with some friends of ours from University.”

Regina giggles lightly at his reaction, inquiring, “What’s so funny about Jamaica?”

His hands drop from behind his hand, landing to rest in his lap. “Well, you see…” he explains, going on to tell her about how John was trying to teach Ruby, just the girl he liked at that point, how to surf. “We were out there for hours, and John didn’t exactly know what he was doing,” he chuckles, telling her how his brother just wanted to impress the girl. “He finally had to give up the jig and admit he didn’t really know how to surf, but I did.”

Regina giggles softly, asking how Ruby reacted to that. “She laughed,” Robin shrugs good naturedly. “That’s the moment I knew John was destined to be with her. If anyone could put up with  _ hours _ of his nonsense, then find out he didn’t really know what the bloody hell he was doing and still find him adorable? Yeah, she was perfect for my brother.”

He goes on, saying John and Ruby finally came back to the beach, begging him to teach Ruby some basic surfing skills. “Where did you learn to surf?” she asks.

“My grandfather, actually,” he says with a smile. “John never really could get the hang of it and would give up every summer that Pops tried to teach us.” He tells Regina how his grandpa was really fit for his age and always loved getting out on the waves, and she smiles, saying her aunt taught her. “I love to surf,” she tells him. 

He nods, agreeing that it’s a great way to spend an afternoon. “Except that day with Ruby didn’t really go as planned…” he trails off, making a mysterious face at her.

Regina narrows her eyes playfully, tilting her head and asking what happened.

“Well,” he sighs. “We were out there, and she was doing great. The next thing I know — BAM!” he exclaims loudly, clapping his hands together. “Something just swam right up and bit me.” 

Regina covers her mouth, gasping into it and asking what it was. 

“A bloody jellyfish,” he says exasperatedly. “Damn thing just swam right by and took a little bite of me. Stung like a bitch.”

“Oh no,” Regina chuckles softly. “I bet that hurt.”

Robin shakes his head, breathing out deeply. “You have  _ no _ idea.” He goes on, animatedly telling her how they’d swam to shore as quickly as possible, him trying to mask the pain he was in the whole time. “We got to the beach and John came running down to us when he saw I was limping.”

Regina breathes out an  _ Oh my god _ and he smiles, glad they’re able to have more time tonight to talk and get to know one another. “And you know what they say; the best way to take the sting out of a jellyfish bite….”

“No!” Regina burst out, laughter spilling from her lips. “Who peed on you!?”

He laughs along with her, enjoying the sound of her vivacious laughter. It’s sweet and bubbly and makes him feel as if he’s the funniest man on the planet. “John,” he admits with a grimace, reaching a hand up to scrub down his face.

She lets out a boisterous guffaw, covering her mouth to tamper down the noise level. He doesn’t mind though, telling her she doesn’t have to be quiet. He fears she’s gotten used to being meek and quiet around Jefferson — he doesn’t want her to feel like that, wants her to be free to express her emotions.

“That’s hilarious,” she giggles, coming down from her belly laughter. “Did he do it right there in the middle of the beach?” she asks, a look of mock disgust coloring her features.

He laughs lightly, exclaiming, “It was too painful! I needed him to do it  _ right _ then!”

She shakes her head, saying this sounds like an episode of  _ Friends _ , and he agrees, admitting that’s where they’d gotten the idea from.

Regina chuckles some more, reaching up to rub her chest. “Are you in pain?” he asks, reaching for the incentive spirometer from the drawer of her bedside table.

“Just a bit,” she says, telling him she hasn’t practiced her breathing since he was there this morning. 

“Ah,” he declares, handing the device to her. “Let’s do this for a few minutes then.”

She purses her lips but nods, taking the contraption from his hands. She sits up as straight as she can and places her lips around the tube, inhales slowly, not giving up until the yellow piston reaches the blue outlined area. She holds her breath, looking over to Robin for confirmation that she’s doing it correctly. He smiles, reassuring her that she’s doing great. She’s done great each time, but she always checks, saying she wants to be sure so she can heal faster. 

At his nod, she exhales slowly, both of them watching as the yellow indicator falls back to it’s starting position. “That’s wonderful, Regina!” he praises excitedly, encouraging her to do it a few more times. 

After they exercise her lungs, he takes the device from her, placing it back on the table and reminding her to do it once or twice more before she goes to bed. “I will,” she nods with a smile.

He looks down, checking his watch. He’s been in here longer than planned and he needs to go check on Mrs. Lucas again before his shift ends. “I hate to do this,” he says apprehensively, “But I need to go check on some more patients.”

“Oh, of course,” she shakes her head, apologizing for taking so much of his time. 

He shakes his head back at her, assuring, “No, no, it’s fine. I just need to go make sure everyone is feeling alright before I go home."

She nods, telling him that’s fine.

“I’ll come back by before I leave for the night,” he confirms, rubbing his thumb across the back of her hand. 

Regina smiles, nodding again and telling him that sounds good. “You know where to find me,” she jokes, causing him to chuckle.

He stands, picking up the remote from the nightstand and handing it to her before making his way out of her room.

{*************************}

Once Robin leaves, she sits back, relaxing into her pillow and clicking on the television. Jefferson showing up had been a surprise, one that had terrified her. She doesn’t want to admit it, but she’s glad Emma had still been here and able to haul him off quickly. Seeing her now very much ex-boyfriend in handcuffs had brought her a small sense of peace — one that’ll help her sleep tonight. 

She sighs, flipping through the channels. It’s nearly Christmas, so she knows there’s bound to be holiday movies playing somewhere. She lands on the Hallmark channel, settling in further to enjoy another typical Christmas love story as she tucks her toes into the comfort of her covers. 

There’s a knock on her door, and she looks over, seeing Emma sticking her head in. She smiles, pressing the button to sit up in her bed again with a tiny huff at having to move when she’d just gotten comfortable. “Don’t get up on my account,” Emma smirks.

Regina smiles, small, but a smile nonetheless. Maybe this Emma girl isn’t as insufferable as she thought earlier today. “I’m supposed to sit up straighter anyway for my lungs,” she admits. 

“Ah,” Emma breathes, making her way further into the room. She leans against the wall to Regina’s right, not making herself at home this time. “I just wanted to come by and give you an update.”

Regina nods, noting the time. Robin had been in her room for almost two hours, so Emma had had time to take Jefferson to the station and process him. “I arrested him for assault and battery and attempted murder.”

“What?” Regina gasps, covering her mouth. 

“He tried to kill you, Regina,” Emma notes sternly. “Threatened to do just that, actually.”

She sighs, closing her eyes. This was going to get out, people in town would find out. Jefferson was a big deal, powerful. This would be a huge scandal, and she tells Emma that. The blonde pushes herself from the wall, scoffing slightly. “I don’t give a flying fuck if he’s the President of the United States. He assaulted you and tried to kill you.”

Regina nods slowly, tears welling up in her eyes, afraid of what will happen to her when she is released from the hospital. Emma sits down, patting her forearm. “Look,” she says gently, “I know you’re scared. I’ve been right where you are, but he needed to be arrested.” She tells her how she processed him and got him booked. “His trial won’t be for weeks, most likely not until after the new year,” she tells her, brushing her hair behind her back. “So you have time to figure out where you’ll live and everything when you get out of here.”

Regina nods again, thankful that she can at least go back to her house long enough to pack her things with the peace of mind that Jefferson won’t be there. She can’t live in that house, Jefferson or no Jefferson, there’s too many tainted memories now. “Will… I have to testify or anything?” she asks hesitantly.

Emma twists her lips, pursing them before blowing out a breath. “Yeah, they usually want the victims to testify to make their case.” Regina’s eyes close, not wanting to deal with this. A trial would mean more press coverage, which would mean her mother and step-father would find out and would most likely fly out here to Storybrooke to be by her side, her mother no doubt seething with anger, reminding Regina over and over again how she never wanted her to date him. “But it all depends on what his lawyers do,” Emma says, clearly trying to be hopeful. 

Regina nods, pushing thoughts away of her mother and step-father breathing down her neck. Mother always wanted her to marry someone like Mary Margaret’s husband, David. Someone who had a good job and knew how to take care of his family. Jefferson had the type of job her mother wanted her boyfriend to have but never the personality. She always thought he was too slimy, too focused on bagging the next deal. If word spread about this attack and his arrest, her mother would never let her live it down.

Sighing, Regina leans back, resting her head on the pillow. “This is so complicated,” she tells Emma. 

She looks over at the blonde who is smiling understandingly. It’s nice, actually, having someone who has been through all of this before. “Yeah,” Emma breathes. “But wouldn’t you rather testify against him and get his ass locked up for good than to go back home to a man who hits you because you went shopping?”

Regina licks her lips, thinking about how the woman has made a good point. She admits some of her fears about her mother finding out, to which Emma responds with a colorful  _ Well fuck her too if she wants to rub this in your face _ , which makes Regina chuckle. 

“So,” she says, looking to the television to see the couple finally kissing underneath the mistletoe, then back to Emma. “You met Robin here too?”

Emma smiles brightly, sitting back more comfortably in the chair. She nods, telling Regina the whole story. She’d been married to Killian for five years, always knew he had a temper, but he usually just took his frustration out on his employees — yelling at them or smashing beer bottles. “One night, though, I guess he hadn’t gotten it all out of his system when he stumbled into the house,” she tells her. She says he’d beat her that night, and almost every night after that. She came to the hospital, just going into the emergency room for months, until one night Killian had broken both her legs. Emma had fought back, knocking him out cold with nothing but her adrenaline and fists, and called 911 as soon as she could crawl to where her cell phone had dropped. “Robin was on call that night and took care of me,” she smiles. “I had to stay here for a few days until my friend could drive up from Boston to get me.” Her friend let her stay in her apartment until she had healed and could come back to Storybrooke on her own. “While I was here, though, Robin really broke down my defenses.” Emma tells her how she’d been angry with Robin when he asked about her abuse, claiming he didn’t know what he was talking about. After a while, however, she’d opened up and Robin had been by her side, encouraging her to press charges. “I finally did when I came back to town, and he’s been locked up every since. My whole situation with Killian is the reason I became a cop,” she sighs, smiling a bit at the memory. “Pressing charges was the greatest thing I ever did for myself, ridding my life of his toxicity, and I have Robin to thank for that. I owe him my life.”

Regina smiles, nodding. She tells Emma how she didn’t want to admit she’d been abused, but there was something about Robin that made it easy. Emma laughs a little at that, saying he has that way. “I think it’s his eyes,” the blonde says jokingly, batting her eyelashes. 

Regina giggles, but deep down she can’t help but agree that it really  _ is _ his eyes. They makes her feel grounded, safe, and comfortable to tell him anything. 

Emma shakes her head, standing from the chair. “Anyway,” she huffs, stretching her back. “I better get home. My son is likely still up playing video games long past his bedtime.” She pats Regina on the shoulder, telling her she’ll come by within the next few days with an update. 

“Thank you,” Regina says, smiling genuinely at the police officer. 

Emma nods, smiling back and making her exit. 

{*************************}

Robin spies Emma leaving her room as he makes his way in that direction. He waves to her, catching her before he leaves and asking if everything is alright.

She nods, catching him up with all she’d told Regina before saying she’s got to get home to Henry and make sure he didn’t trick their neighbor into letting him stay up too late.

He smirks, giving her a hug and wishing her a goodnight.

Robin’s changed into his regular clothes now that his shift is over. He’s in jeans and a gray t-shirt with his forest green leather jacket over it. He taps his jacket pockets, making sure the items he’d picked up for Regina are still secure and knocks on her door before cracking it open.

He turns his head, glimpsing at the television as she greets him with a  _ Hi _ and smiling brightly at him.

“Hey,” he replies, walking over to the chair and pulling it out to take a seat. “What are you watching?”

“Some cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie,” she says, a breathy giggle falling from her mouth. 

“Ah, the best kind,” he jokes.  

She rolls her eyes playfully, scoffing out a laugh, “Yeah, I’m sure you watch them all the time.” 

“I do in fact,” he tells her indignantly, causing her to grin. “I don’t think I’ve seen this one. I’d like to stay and watch it... if that’s okay with you?”

She turns her eyes to look at him, her grin deepening. “That’s fine.” 

He takes his jacket off, slinging it onto the back of the chair. “Excellent,” he smirks, reaching into the pocket of his coat to pull out two boxes of candy and giving them a rattle. “Good thing I brought these!”

She laughs, eyes sparkling as she reaches out for a box of Reese's Pieces. “Mmm,” she moans lightly. “My favorite. Thank you.”

He smiles, glad he picked her favorite candy by coincidence. They’re his as well, so he was just hoping she’d be okay with the selection. He settles into the chair, opening his box and watching as she does the same, pulling her knees closer to her body. She pops a few pieces into her mouth and closes her eyes, moaning again. “I forgot how good these are,” she says around her bite. “I haven’t had them in so long.”

Robin laughs, agreeing and saying they’re ever better dumped on top of warm popcorn. “Did you bring any popcorn?” she asks excitedly, eye bulging out like a kid on their birthday.

He shakes his head and apologizes with a chuckle. “I’m afraid not, m’lady. Next time though…” She nods, eating a few more pieces and agreeing that next time he definitely needs to bring popcorn.

“We can’t have a cheesy movie night without it!” she laughs. 

He smiles to himself, glad to see her personality coming out. He’s intrigued by this woman, afraid to admit it to himself, but attracted to her as well. He knows he shouldn’t be, she’s recovering from domestic abuse, but there’s something about her. There’s a pull he feels, an instant attraction that he hasn’t felt since his late wife Marian. He doesn’t want to flirt too heavily though, knowing that would be inappropriate, but he’s enjoying this time getting to know her. If nothing else, perhaps they could become friends.

“Emma told me about how the two of you met,” she says suddenly, placing her candy down on the mattress and looking over in his direction. “It was nice that you helped her.”

He sets his candy down as well, telling her how his mother-in-law had worked with victims of domestic violence at a women’s shelter, and his best medical professors had always encouraged him and his classmates to always ask if they suspected things weren’t right in a patient’s home life.

“Mother-in-law?” she asks, looking over to him. “I didn’t know you were married.”

He smiles lightly, just the corners of his lip twitching up, glad to see she’s interested in his personal life. “I was, for four years.” He tells her how he and Marian had gotten married when she graduated with her bachelor’s degree. “We were young, around twenty-two at the time, but we knew we didn’t want to wait until I finished medical school.” 

She nods, saying that’s understandable. “It’s a good thing we didn’t wait, though,” he says solemnly. “Marian got sick our second year of marriage and was gone two years after that.”

“Oh,” Regina breathes, eyes going sympathetic as they look into his. “I’m so sorry.” She reaches over, taking his hand in hers and rubbing her thumb along the back of his hand like he’d done so many times to her these past few days. He smiles gently, bringing his other hand up to pat their joined hands, assuring her it’s okay. “It was hard at first, but I’ve learned to live life again.”

She smiles, giving his hand a squeeze and saying she’s glad. “It can be so hard for some people to move on from a loss like that.” She tells him of her mother, and how her father had passed when she was a little girl — horseback riding accident gone wrong. “My mother shut herself off from the world, including me, for a long time. She met my step-father when I was a freshman in high school, and they were married by the end of my sophomore year.”

He hums in agreement, saying it’s hard to move on, but their loved ones wouldn’t want them to dwell on their loss forever, and she nods in agreement. “You seem close with your step-sister, though. Mary Margaret, right?”

Regina smiles, saying she got lucky in the sibling department. “She’s two years younger than me, a tad annoying growing up, but overall she’s great.” Mary Margaret is married now and living in New York, but they still keep in touch, having weekly phone calls to stay connected. 

“How did you and Marian meet?” she asks, turning the volume down on the television. The movie she’d been watching has just gone off, and he feels a tad guilty for making her miss the ending, but, he supposes, they all end the same anyway with the couple finally admitting their feelings and sharing their (usually) first kiss, so she probably didn’t miss that much.

He sighs wistfully, saying they had a class together freshman year of college. “I had just moved here the year before and was convinced she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever met,” he laughs, causing Regina to smile softly at him. “I couldn’t bring myself to ask her out for another year, though. Luckily we’d become friends, so I was able to keep in touch with her until I had the guts to ask her out.”

Regina laughs, saying she’s glad it worked out for him. 

“What brought you to America?”

“Ah,” he says, settling further into the chair. “My father was friends with the man that used to own this hospital — they’d met at a medical conference when I was much younger and always kept in touch. He was retiring and wanted my father to take over,” he explains. “It was just too good of an opportunity for him to pass up, so we packed up, sold our house, and moved to the states.”

“Do you ever miss England?”

He nods, telling her he did in the beginning a lot, but he and John made friends easily here and all the girls in high school loved their British accents, so it was fun. She chuckles at that, saying, “Every girl loves a good British accent.”

He smirks, “Is that so?” before bouncing his eyebrows slightly, playfully, not wanting this flirtatious moment to seem too substantial. He doesn’t want to freak her out, but a bit of friendly banter never hurt anyone. 

Regina snickers, giving as good as she got, and wags her eyebrows back at him. Picking up her candy, she pops the tab on the top open, reaching in to grab a few pieces before saying, “Definitely.”

Robin chuckles breathily, nodding his head with a purse to his lips, taking note of how she reacted. She sits up, clicking the volume on the television again. “Oh, good,” she says, “I love this one! You going to stay and watch it with me?”

He holds up his box of candy, jiggling it so the pieces inside rattle. “I’ve still got plenty of candy left, so I’m good to stay for a while.”

She smiles, saying she’s glad as she looks back to the TV, watching as the main girl runs into the snow, being captured in the arms of a muscular man standing in front of a giant Christmas tree. 

“These movies always have the same plot,” he jokes, finally pulling his gaze from her face. “We all know this isn’t the guy she’ll end up with.”

Regina laughs, swallowing her latest bite and agreeing. “And someone’s parent will be dead, there’s always a dead parent.”

“Her and the guy she’ll meet later on will get in a fight—”

“— and break up halfway through the movie,” she teases, interrupting him with a finger lifted playfully in the air to make her point. 

He laughs, popping more candy in his mouth and saying, “But then in the last five minutes they’ll both realize how idiotic they’ve been this whole time and find each other. Probably sharing a passionate kiss in the snow… or some type of wintery backdrop.”

Regina looks over at him with playfully squinted eyes. She smiles a toothy grin, an airy laugh bubbling out of her again at his words. “You really do like these Hallmark Christmas movies!”

He smiles, shrugging his shoulders. “They’re good,” he says defensively, and Regina rolls her eyes, turning to face the TV again. “You’re right, they are,” she whispers.

{*************************}

It’s been seven days since she was brought in, and Regina feels like her old self more than ever before. She’s gotten closer with Tink, fully considering her a friend now. The girls have made plans to go out after the new year together for dinner and drinks. She’s been up and moving around a lot more the past few days, taking to the hallways for exercise.

Tink or Robin join her most days, stopping by every few rooms for them to check on their patients. Regina usually waits in the hallway unless it’s Mrs. Lucas; she’s like her floor’s adoptive grandma, and she always wants to check on Regina’s recovery. She’d discovered that Mrs. Lucas was  _ the _ granny from Granny’s diner, the one she and Robin both loved to eat at. Regina has talked to her a few times, getting to know all about her and her secret ingredient to her spaghetti sauce.

“Hey,” Robin says, coming up behind her. She’d just walked out of her room, waddling slowly; it’s always difficult getting started after laying down all night. The muscles in her stomach are tight, the abrasions that still linger on them tingling with a small amount of pain. 

She smiles over at him as he stands beside her, her lips forming more into a grimace. “Good morning.”

“You alright?” he asks with concern, placing a hand to the small of her back. She likes the contact, appreciates it. It’s warm and comforting, so she smiles over at him. 

She sighs, nodding her head. “Yeah, my stomach is just a little sore. I must’ve slept funny last night.”

He hums, saying he can have Tink bring some more pain medication later when she comes by to rewrap her pinky and ring finger. She thanks him, saying she’ll be there. “I’m not going anywhere,” she teases with a playful lift to her brows. 

He smiles at that, which makes her happy. She doesn’t have many jokes, never really thought she was the funniest of people, and she finds her  _ you know where I am  _ schtick is all she’s got while cooped up in this hospital. But Robin laughs every time she makes the remark, so it must be at least somewhat humorous.

“I want to show you something,” he says, leaning in closer to her ear which sends an odd tingle down her spine. Brushing off the sensation, she smiles over at him and nods. “Follow me.” He waves to Tink, Belle and Ashley, the three nurses at the station this morning, and she does too, as he leads her slowly to the lobby of their floor. 

She gasps, spying the large Christmas tree sitting in front of the large window looking out onto the city. “It’s beautiful!” she exclaims excitedly, bringing a hand up to her mouth, attempting to cover her giddy smile; she’s always loved Christmas decorations. 

He smiles warmly, saying he remembered the night they watched their first Hallmark movie together (because they’ve found themselves watching several together these last few nights, well into the early morning hours, Robin zombie-walking himself out around one AM before coming in the next morning for his shift) that she said Christmas was her favorite time of year — she always loved the lights and the decorated trees, the happiness and peacefulness that surrounded the holiday. 

Regina giggles, reaching out to touch an ornament of a little princess on top of a black horse. “I love it,” she breathes, biting on her bottom lip to tame her smile. “When did this get put up?” She had just walked the halls yesterday afternoon, so it had to of happened quickly.

He tells her the maintenance people came by after dinner last night and set it up, claiming every floor had one. He chuckles at her astonished reaction, laughing heartily when she says, “Leroy must’ve hated having to do that.” He tells her through his laughter that no, in fact, Leroy did not like that assignment, but he’d done it anyway. 

“He’s so grumpy,” Regina says, scrunching her nose. Robin nods, agreeing and saying he’s a _Bah humbug_ _all year round, not just at Christmas._

He puts his hand around her shoulder, wrapping her in his warmth as he turns their bodies. “And look,” he says, pointing down the long hallway they’d just come from. Hanging from the ceiling are paper snowflakes and there are white fairy lights strung about. 

“It’s beautiful,” she gushes, walking a little bit down the hall and looking up at the snowflakes. “Who made these?”

“The children in the Oncology ward,” he tells her. “They make them every year.”

Regina smiles, telling him they are beautiful. “Yeah,” he breathes contentedly. “Stunning.” She looks down from the ceiling to him, catching his sweet gaze. She smiles shyly, knowing he wasn’t talking about just the children’s artwork. She can feel a blush rising on her cheek, so she clears her throat, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear and taking another step forward.

He moves a step after her, catching up and placing his hand back on her spine. They walk slowly, observing all the different snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. 

“What are your plans for Christmas?” she asks as they walk past her room, making their way further down the hall. 

Robin hums, saying he goes to his mum and dad’s house with John, Ruby, and their boys. “We have a big family lunch and then spend the whole afternoon and good part of the evening opening presents.” She smiles wistfully, telling him that sounds lovely. “If my grandmother is in town, she joins us, too. What about you?”

“Oh,” she sighs, twisting her lips in apprehension. “I, uh… I always go to Jefferson’s now on Christmas day. So,” she hesitates, shrugging, “I’m not really sure what I’ll do this year.”

He nods. “Well, you won’t be getting out of this prison until Christmas Eve, unfortunately,” he admits, motioning around to the floor she’s called home for the past week. “Where will you go?”

Regina sighs again, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear once more, a nervous habit she’s had since childhood that her mother always hated — said it made her look too vulnerable. “I’m not sure, actually,” she concedes, a pit forming in her stomach. “I usually go to New York to see Mary Margaret, David and the kids after Christmas.” He asks if they can come here this year on actual Christmas, but she shakes her head. “I already talked to her the other day,” she tells him sadly. “She wants to fly in for Christmas to take care of me, but she isn’t sure if she can afford it on such short notice. And with David and the kids to worry about…” she shakes her head again. “It’s just easier for me to go to them.” She shrugs, saying she might just spend Christmas in whatever living space she can afford on such short notice, possibly a hotel until she can find something suitable, and then fly to New York in the new year.

Robin looks at her sadly, saying she can’t spend Christmas alone. She huffs, trying her hardest not to snap, but reminds him that she has no one else. “I’m not going to go see my mother — I’d rather be forced to sit in jail with Jefferson than spend a holiday with her telling me how I should’ve listened to her in the beginning and then none of this ever would’ve happened.”

He smirks, albeit not as joyfully as normal, and surrenders with an  _ Alright, you’re right _ , and promises to help her look online today or tomorrow for a place she can stay. She smiles, thanking him. “I know I could just stay in Jefferson’s house since he’s gone, but,” she stammers, pausing, “That just seems wrong.”

He agrees, saying he wouldn’t want her staying there, anyway. Too many memories to contend with on her own. “We’ll find something nice. Something you can afford on a weeks notice.” 

They make it to end of the hall, turning around to walk all the way back down to the top of it where the tree resides. “It’ll have to be something really cheap,” she tells him. “After being here for, what did you tell me, fourteen days? My hospital bill will be  _ massive _ .” It’s something she’s worried about for the past few days. They’d done the procedure, sticking the needle in her side to drain the excess air from her chest, helping her lung get stronger, and after that, Robin had broken the news that she’d have to stay for another week so he could monitor her and make sure her lung wouldn’t collapse again. 

She’s come to enjoy her stay here, it’s much more lively that one would imagine a hospital being, and she has to believe that’s because of Robin and his staff’s upbeat personalities. She’s made friends and gets to be herself, she doesn’t have to ask anyone permission to do anything (to an extent, there are still some activities she isn’t quite strong enough for). But when she thinks of how much one day in the hospital costs, let alone the seven she’s already been here and the seven more she’ll have to stay, she doesn’t even want to guess how much the bill will come out to be.

“Don’t worry about that,” Robin says casually, slowing them down as they near the nurses’ station. She’s getting a bit winded, they’ve walked the hall twice now, so it’ll be nice to stop by and see the girls. “Your insurance will cover some of it, and we have payment plans. I trust you,” he winks. All she can do is roll her eyes at him, knowing this payment plan will include her owing him money for at least the next year, if not more. 

“How are you doing today, Regina?” Belle asks, smiling up at her from where she’s perched behind the computer. She’s a nice girl, beautiful, long, auburn hair and piercing blue eyes. She’d laughed to herself the first day she met her, wondering if having blue eyes was a requirement to work on this floor of the hospital, even the male nurse, Eric, that’s worked a few times since she’s been here has them. Regina reaches up, resting an elbow on the counter of the desk and running her other hand through her dark hair. She reminds herself to get it cut now that it sits below her shoulder blades. She think she’ll get a good bit taken off, wanting to have no reminders of her life with Jefferson anymore. He always liked it long, insisted she keep it the length it was now, so a good chopping to above her shoulders seems appropriate.

“I’m good,” she assures, breathing deeply. Robin excuses himself, making his way into her room across from the nurses’ station. “Just a bit out of breath from my exercise.” Belle smiles, saying the walking is good for her lungs, and she’s doing a great job. 

Tink walks up then, giving Regina a hug in greeting. “Did you see our tree!?” she asks Regina cheerfully. 

She smiles, saying Robin had just walked her down there a few minutes ago. “It’s beautiful! I love Christmas trees.” 

Tink nods, her smile forming into a smirk as she says, “The hospital usually only has the one really giant one downstairs, but,” she shrugs, eyeing Regina up and down, “Boss Man put in an order the other night for all the floors to get one. Made sure to order this floor’s first.” She winks over at Regina, who just smiles shyly, pulling her hair to one side. 

“Here you go,” Robin says, walking back up. His hand stretches out, handing her a cup of water he’d retrieved from her room. 

She takes the water, sipping slowly and looking at Tink from over the rim of the cup. Tink grins again, sitting down to type on the computer, though her eyebrows are raised in a suspicious manner, still looking at Regina from her peripheral vision. “Thank you,” Regina says, coughing a bit as she swallows the water.

Robin nods, placing his hand on her lower back again, guiding her away from Belle and Tink. “Do you want to walk down to the tree one more time or just go back to your room?”

She thinks for a second, deciding the water helped. “I think I can make it to the tree and then back to my room,” she tells him with a smile.

He perks up, grinning as he waves over his shoulder to the nurses for both of them. “Excellent. There’s an ornament of the grinch stealing Christmas lights off of a house that I think you’ll find amusing.”

Regina smiles, laughing softly at his excitement. She really does love Christmas, and is glad that, for whatever reason, Robin decided to put a Christmas tree on her floor. She thinks she might just have to take another walk later today to look at it again. 

{**************************}

A few days later, Robin steps into her room, letting out a hearty, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” and she laughs, closing her book and placing it on the nightstand. He’s dressed in a red Santa suit, giant belly and white beard to match, with a sack full of goodies slung over his shoulder as he makes his way closer to her.

“What are you doing?” she laughs, sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She’s in the black yoga pants and a blue t-shirt she’d borrowed from Tink (along with several other pairs of sweats, yoga pants, t-shirts, and baggy, long sleeves shirts his favorite employee had donated to his favorite patient). 

She grabs her thin, gray robe, sliding it on and tying the belt around her waist. “Delivering presents, of course!” he says in his best Santa impersonation. 

Regina giggles as he tells her, in his regular voice this time, how every year he delivers presents to the children in the Oncology ward. “I collect donations all year long for it, some people give money and I have the nurses go out and get presents, and some people donate the actual gift.” 

“That’s amazing,” she smiles, saying when she’s all better, she might just have to apply to be the hospital’s event coordinator so she can help with things like this. 

Robin smiles widely, thinking that sounds like an excellent idea. She’d be great at it, and he kicks himself for not thinking of that sooner. “I thought you might want to go with me. Be Santa’s little helper?”

She softly laughs again, sliding her slippers on and wrapping her arm around his, “Lead the way, Santa,” slipping from her mouth and sounding far sexier than he thinks she meant for it to. 

He grins, walking her slowly to the elevator. She makes a comment about how she’s glad she’d already brushed her hair and put a little bit of makeup on today, but he assures her she doesn’t need it. “You look wonderful without the makeup, too.” She just smiles, leaning her back against the railing inside the elevator as it makes its way up three floors above hers.

Stepping out into the oncology ward, he takes a deep breath. He loves these kids and their families, and he’s always so heartbroken for the ones that have to spend their holidays with him instead of at home with the rest of their loved ones. Regina must be able to sense his hesitance, because she places her hand between his shoulder blades, giving it a gentle rub up and down. She pats his back, saying, “Ready, Santa?”

He smiles, slinging the bag of toys over his shoulder and helping her walk toward the playroom. It’s a large room on the floor, full of books and toys for the kids who are able to play. There’s also the individual rooms where the kids sleep, and some stay all day due to their illness. 

They walk into the playroom first, the kids squealing in glee as he lets out another  _ Ho! Ho! Ho! _ and removes the sack of toys from around his shoulder. He hands Regina a few gifts, motioning for her to pass them out, while he does the same. The children are all gathered around, giggling with excitement, wondering what their present will be. A few switch, a little girl wanting what a little boy had and vice versa, but all in all, everyone is happy. After chatting with a few parents and checking on the kids, making sure everyone has a toy, he spots Regina in the corner and his breath is lost to him for a moment. 

The sun is shining in through the window above her, casting a warm glow onto her skin. There’s a small boy, around four, cuddled in her lap as he shows her the new books he received today along with a stuffed monkey he’d gotten. She giggles, pulling the boy further onto her lap as he opens the book, pointing to the words and asking her to read to him. Regina looks around, catching his eye and pointing to the boy, seemingly asking if they have time. He waves his hand, nodding to let her know it’s alright. He worries for a second about the weight of the child so close to her abdomen, but she seems fine and he knows her well enough now to know that if she were in pain, she’d say something. 

She’s beautiful, and he can’t help but stand there for a few more moments, watching her smiling and laughing, tickling the little boy’s belly. 

“Ahem,” he hears coughed behind him. Turning, he spies Tink, eyeing him with a knowing look. Her arms are crossed over her chest, one hip jutted out to the side. 

“What?” he asks, reaching down to play with a little girl and her new Barbie doll. Tink rolls her eyes, telling him she was just coming down to help pass out presents. 

“You know,” she sasses, tapping the bell on the top of her elf hat. “Like I do every year when you make me put on this silly costume.” She gestures down to the striped leggings, elf shoes and bright green dress with bells as buttons, and he laughs, standing up and knocking the bell on her hat as well. “Yes, thank you. An extra set of hands is always helpful.”

Turning around with another playful roll of her eyes, she mutters out a Y _ eah, yeah, two sets of extra hands this year it seems _ . Once out of the playroom, she spins on her heel back to face him. “You coming or do the babies in their beds have to wait even longer?”

He laughs, getting Regina’s attention to let her know they need to go. She nods, giving her new little friend a gentle hug before standing and meeting up with him and Tink.

“Cute outfit,” she says, giggling at Tink’s costume. “It works, though I  _ do _ hope you have something else planned for our dinner together in a few weeks.”

Tink laughs, and Robin smiles, glad to see the two of them have become such fast friends. It’s understandable; Regina is easy to get along with, but he’s happy to see she’s made a girlfriend that she can spend time with. 

The three of them turn, waving goodbye to the children and their parents, and make their way to deliver the rest of the gifts to the children too sick to leave their beds. 

Two hours later, they make it back to Regina’s floor, and she collapses into her bed as soon as her body hits the mattress. “I’m exhausted,” she laments, grabbing her stomach as she shifts her weight onto the bed, and he feels guilty. He’d kept her up on her feet far longer than she’s done over the past ten days, but he knows she needs to start moving around more and expanding her lungs.

“Here,” Tink says, rushing to her bedside and collecting her legs. “Let me help.” The nurse swings Regina’s legs onto the mattress as she scoots herself up higher. Tink goes to put the covers around her, but Regina waves her off, saying she doesn’t want to be covered up right now. 

Tink nods, checking Regina’s healing fingers and scratches on her arm, saying she’ll reapply her ointment later today, before making her exit. 

Robin pours her some water from the pitcher that’s kept on the small table, handing her the cup. She takes it thankfully, smiling in gratitude, and takes a few hearty sips.

_ Ahh _ she exhales out after drinking some. She reaches over, places the cup back on the table before leaning into her pillow. “Today was a lot of fun,” she tells him. 

Robin smiles, glad that she had a good time. “I always love doing that,” he admits. He tells her seeing those kids and how strong they are is always so empowering. “I like to just go down there and visit sometimes. They’re highly entertaining.”

She chuckles, telling him about the little boy she’d been reading to earlier. He nods, telling her he’s a great kid. His parents are both very busy, working and taking care of their other three children. His dad is a lawyer and his mum owns a shoe store, but they come out to visit as much as they can. They’re here more often when he has a surgery coming up, and they always feel bad for the time they have to spend away from him. Robin sighs, saying his parents admitted to him before that they considered putting their son up for adoption because the medical bills were piling up so much but couldn’t imagine life without their baby boy. So, they work overtime, trying to make as much money as possible to help keep the bills at bay.

“He was adorable,” Regina says, telling him she’d like to go down there and visit again before she leaves. The words  _ before she leaves _ reverberate in his mind, reminding him that he has to let her go soon. She’ll heal and be on her way, and he isn’t sure how to feel about that anymore. 

“Lean back for me,” he tells her, remembering he needs to check her wounds after the heavy lifting she did today with the young boy. “I need to check how your lacerations are healing.”

Regina nods, laying back and lifting her shirt enough to let him see cuts. He leans in, examining the wound. There had been a larger gash he was worried about, the one Jefferson had reopened, but they all seem to be healing nicely. He reaches over, touching his fingertips to the largest wound. Her stomach jumps, and she laughs, saying, “Sorry, your hands are cold.”

He chuckles, his hot breath ghosting over her stomach as he apologizes. He leans back, standing straight to blow on his fingertips, warming them up. “Better?” he asks, placing his fingers back onto her stomach. She nods, biting her lip and breathing out a  _ Yes _ .

Robin swallows, touching the area around the wound. “Is it tender?”

“Hm?” she says, seemingly distracted. He looks over at her, and she’s staring at him intently. “Oh,” Regina stammers, “No, uh, it feels fine.”

He nods, touching another one to make sure there’s no pain. “They’re turning pink, which is an excellent sign. I’ll have Tink bring more ointment tonight that she can apply for you.”

She nods and pulls down her shirt. She sits up, criss-crossing her legs as he moves closer to her face. Her breath catches in her throat and her tongue peeks out to wet her lips. He glances down briefly, watching her tongue dart back inside her mouth. He looks back up into her eyes, tilting his head. “The bruise on your eye looks much better,” he tells her, leaning a smidge closer, closing one of his eyes and squinting to check the tiny cut that was under her eye. The swelling has gone down significantly, and he can see just how clear and beautiful her brown eyes are. They’re so expressive, telling him a million different things right now. He doesn’t know why, but looking this deeply into them, he feels as if he was born to gaze into those eyes. 

Clearing his throat, he leans back, taking a deep breath and breaking the moment. “Looks like your bruises are all healing exactly how we want them to.”

She blinks once, twice, three times before coughing slightly, shifting in her bed. “G-good,” she says, reaching for her water again.

Robin smirks, telling her to try and get a nap before Tink brings her dinner by. “You’ve had a lot of activity today, get some rest.”

She promises she will, pulling out her book again, saying she’s going to read one more chapter to relax and then she’ll nap. “I promise.”

He smiles, nodding as he turns to leave her room, confused by what just happened, but not at all complaining.

{*************************}

Two days after visiting the children’s ward, Regina finds herself unable to stop thinking about Robin. Sure, she knew he was handsome from the moment she’d opened her eyes. But something lately, the way he’s so attentive, or the little things he does for her - like bringing her new novels to read, setting up a Christmas tree on her hall to help her get in the holiday spirit, have all made her realize just how attractive he is. Watching him that day, passing out presents and full of jolly cheer as he spoke with the kids and their parents, she couldn’t stop smiling. Even hours after he had left and gone home, she couldn’t stop the smile from forming on her lips at the memory of that day — and all the days she’s spent with him. 

“Knock, knock,” she hears, glancing up from her cell phone. She’s been playing this game, trying to connect all the colorful dots to their match while using all the spaces on the game board, and she was stuck. Had been stuck on the same level for the last hour, but she refused to use one of the hints. Regina smiles, seeing Robin’s head peek in through the door. 

“Hey,” she greets. “What are you doing?” she asks when she notices he hasn’t stepped inside yet. Emma had been by yesterday to let her know Jefferson was for sure staying in jail, and that his trial wouldn’t be until the middle of January. Though she still has to testify, she felt more confident knowing she had a good support system behind her now between Robin, Tink and Emma along with her step-sister and David. She may have only known these people for twelve days, but she’s spent almost every waking moment with Tink or Robin, far more than she did with her friends she had before Jefferson, so she’s gotten to know them very well very quickly. She gets nervous though at Robin’s apprehension to come in the room, fearing something might be wrong, maybe something has happened or changed with Jefferson’s case. “Robin? You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he says reassuringly. “I just wanted to make sure you were awake. I have a surprise for you.”

She smiles, rolling her eyes. “A surprise? Well bring it in!” she jokes, dramatically waving her hand in his direction to beckon him inside.

Robin laughs, turning to push the door open with his muscular back. She hears something dragging on the floor but can’t see it from where she sits on her bed. She leans over, too far as she feels the gash on her stomach stretch, so she sits back, swinging her legs off the bed to stand up. “What is it?” she laughs, walking closer to him. 

She places her hand on his back, peering over his shoulder. “A Christmas tree? Robin…” she says softly, touched that he would do this for her.

He shrugs, that boyish smirk she’s grown so fond of spreading across his lips. “I figured this way you didn’t have to walk down the hall at night to look at the Christmas lights.”

Regina smiles, pulling her bottom lip in with her teeth to hide her excitement. Her favorite part of having a Christmas tree is being able to turn all the lights off at night, save for the glow of the tree’s lights and the television as a Christmas movie plays. She’d told him this just yesterday, which makes her heart soften just a tad bit more. “Thank you,” she breathes. 

He pulls the box over into the corner by the window, telling her to sit and relax while he assembles it. She huffs playfully, turning the chair to face the other direction so she can watch him and plopping into it instead of the bed. She’s been spending some time in the leather chair the last few days, needing a change.

She pulls her knees up as close to her chest as she can, taking her incentive spirometer off the bed side table. She starts her breathing exercise as Robin works, putting the three parts of the artificial tree together and fluffing the branches. “I did it!” she exclaims when she finally gets the yellow indicator to the top of the tube. She’s only been able to do that once or twice before, and she’s been struggling the last few days. 

Robin looks around the tree, his head popping out from the back of it to see what she’s so happy about. He smiles brightly upon seeing the device in her hands, telling her that was wonderful and to try again. She nods, asking him if he’d seen his brother lately, before inhaling on the machine’s tube. She knows he’s talked a lot about his brother, but wasn’t sure how often they saw each other now that he’s busy working such late shifts and running the hospital. 

“Yeah,” he says, chuckling to himself as a branch smacks him in the face. “We actually had dinner last night when I left here.”

Her eyes bulge, letting go of the tube on an exhale. “You left my room at almost eleven o’clock!”

Robin laughs, saying he went over to John’s house for  _ more of a midnight snack _ . “The kids were asleep so me, John and Ruby sat around their kitchen island making miniature s’mores over a candle.”

She looks at him questioningly. “S’mores over a candle?” and he chuckles again, that deep one that rumbles in his belly before coming out that she likes so much. He tells her the kids had some leftover chocolate from the ones they’d made earlier, so the three of them had stuck small pieces of chocolate and marshmallows on to toothpicks, roasting them over a large candle Ruby keeps around since they’d already put out their fireplace for the night. 

Regina smiles longingly, wishing she had family moments like that to cling to. Sure, she has Mary Margaret and David, but she rarely sees them now that they’ve moved away from Storybrooke. “That sounds so fun,” she tells him with a wistful sigh.

“It was,” he tells her, saying they sat around and just talked, catching up on the last few weeks and deciding what prank they were going to pull at this year’s family Christmas. “I even talked about you.”

“You did?” she questions in a stunned tone, turning her head to get a better look at him. He was still on the backside of the tree, straightening out the last few branches as he wrapped the white lights around the tree. 

He hums, “Yeah, I was telling them about what’s been keeping me here so late each night, and how wonderful you are. Might’ve even tried to convince them to let you come over for Christmas lunch,” he laughs, adding that Ruby said they might not want to subject her to their grandma’s terrible jokes just yet. 

_ Just yet _ . She latches onto those words, knowing he probably didn’t mean anything by it, he’s just rambling as he works, but she can’t help but smile at the thought of spending a holiday one day with people who seem as fun as John and Ruby. Even if she just went as a friend, which of course she would, because that’s what they are. Friends. 

“Hey, what does John do, anyway?” she inquires, placing her spirometer on the mattress behind her. “You said my first day here that this hospital was family owned, but you’ve only mentioned your dad being a doctor.”

He laughs, coming out from behind the tree and telling her it’s ready to be decorated. She stands, excited for this part — the best part of putting up a tree. 

“John went to medical school, but after graduating, he decided he didn’t want to work in our hospital,” he explains, opening the first box of ornaments. They’re red and black, her favorite colors, and she shakes her head, wondering where on Earth he found red and  _ black _ Christmas ornaments. “John went into family medicine and owns a doctor’s office in town.”

“Oh,” she sighs, picking up a black, wooden ornament, with the word  _ Joy _ written in red and outlined in white. “That makes sense — better hours I would imagine.”

He nods, picking up a red sphere. They place their ornaments one by one, finding the perfect spot for each one and giggling with one another when an ornament is too heavy for the fake branches and makes it slump down too much. “I told you that one was too heavy,” she laughs as he stretches to catch his freshly placed ornament before it crashes to the ground. “Good thing you bought the plastic spheres,” she murmurs under her breath playfully, giving him a light shove out of the way. “Here,” she huffs, taking his place, “Let me find the perfect spot for it.”

Robin laughs, “As Your Majesty wishes,” bowing dramatically and moving to the other side of her. 

“Thank you,” she says regally, tutting her head up like a Queen and turning to place the ornament on the back of the tree. She’s struggled with a few of them, only really having eight fingers to work with, but she’s learned to work around the wrapped fingers pretty well these past few days. She looks out the window, gasping at the sight before her. “Robin, look! It’s snowing!”

The weather had been weird this season, freezing cold like normal but it had only snowed once so far. It melted weeks ago, but since then it’s just been an annoying, drizzling sleet that wouldn’t stick. “Oh, wow,” he breathes, coming to stand next to her as they stare out the window. “I love when it snows.”

She nods, telling him one of the reasons she loves Christmas so much is because of the snow. “It just makes everything look like a scene from a movie.”

“You really love those Christmas movies, don’t you?” he taunts, looking down at her and smiling.

She looks away from the window, catching his gaze. “Yes, yes, I do!”

They laugh, stepping away from the window and going back to the boxes. She catches sight of Tink standing in the doorway, and she gives her a smile. “Hey, Tink.”

The curly haired woman snaps out of the daze she was apparently in, her smile growing wider. “Hey, you two,” she drawls. “I was coming by to see if you needed some company, but,” she shrugs, “Looks like this guy’s got you covered!”

Robin breathes out a quiet laugh through his nose, one she thinks only she could hear, as he busies himself with placing more ornaments on the tree. Regina looks between him and Tink, giving her an apologetic smile. “I’ll come find you when we’re done here and we can chat.”

Tink nods, giving her a smile and a wink before turning around and leaving. Regina shakes her head, furrowing her brow as she thinks to herself how odd her new friend really is sometimes. 

With a light laugh, she turns back around to the Christmas tree. They’ve just about emptied the first box of ornaments, and she looks around, seeing if there’s another one. 

Robin comes around from the back of the tree where he’d been placing some of the uglier ornaments that came in the box and stands beside her, eyeing the tree to see what progress they’ve made. “Looks good so far,” he affirms, nodding to himself. 

Regina agrees, moving over an inch so their shoulders are touching. “It still needs a few more, I think.”

Robin looks down at her, staring into her eyes. He leans closer and her breath catches in her throat, much like it did the other day when he was looking at the bruise on her eye. She thinks maybe that’s what he is doing now, and odd time to do it, but she can think of no other reason he’d be standing so close, looking so intently. Robin leans even closer, as if moving in slow motion, and Regina can’t help when her eyes flutter closed, thinking about how his lips would feel pressed against hers. She opens after the shortest of moments, blinking rapidly as he reaches around her, bending to grab the next box of ornaments that sits on the floor. 

She sighs out, widening her eyes and licking her lips before blinking again. She can feel her heartbeat pounding in her chest and ears, and she hopes that he can’t hear it no matter how closely he’s standing to her. Regina clears her throat, as Robin takes a step back. “Here’s the other ornaments,” he says nonchalantly, holding the box up for her to see. She nods slowly, taking her own step back and forcing out a smile, praying it looks natural. 

“Good,” she mumbles. “We probably won’t need the whole box, but a few more will help.”

He nods, placing the container down in the chair and opening it up. “So, how did you get that scar on your lip?” he asks, coming to stand by her again. “Was… was it Jefferson?”

She smiles, glad that this scar has a happier story. “No,” she chuckles. “I’ve had this one since I was little.” Regina picks up another ornament, this one red with black snowflakes, and places it in an open space on the tree. She tells him how she loved to ride horses when she was younger, her dad worked at a stable and she would always go with him on weekends and summer breaks to help tend to the horses and ride them. 

“There was this one time, though, just before my dad died. I was…” she thinks back, doing the math in her head. “Six or seven. He’d taken me with him like he always did. I’d been riding since I was in kindergarten, so at least a year or more at this point. There was this one horse, Rocinante, that I always loved. He was younger than the other horses in the stable, less trained, but he was still great with riders.” She picks up a black sphere with red polka dots, handing it to Robin. She scrunches her nose, motioning for him to put it on the side of the tree she can’t see from her bed. He chuckles, nodding that he got the message. He moves around her, placing his hand on her back as he does so as not to fall, and she shivers at the contact, reprimanding herself to get her hormones under control. 

“So anyway,” she says, shaking her head and picking up one last ornament. The tree is pretty full by now, so she thinks they probably have enough. “My dad was cleaning out Rocinante’s stall while I rode him around this practice ring inside the stable. I was practicing my gallops, and my dad kept telling me to be careful. But, of course, I thought I could do it,” she chuckles, going to sit back down on her bed as Robin closes the box of ornaments, waving his hand in the tree’s direction, silently asking if it looks okay. Regina smiles brightly, giving him a thumbs up. He smiles, nodding and cleaning up the stray, artificial pine needles that had fallen to the floor.

“Rocinante galloped a little too hard and I bounced right off.  _ Luckily _ my dad had just walked into the ring right before that and was close enough to run and catch me before I hit the ground.”

Robin’s eyes widen, mumbling a  _ Shit, that is lucky _ to which she giggles. He picks up the tree skirt, a nice, simple, solid black piece of cloth. She’s glad it’s black because most of the ornaments are red so it’s a nice balance to pull out the black accents on the tree. Regina smiles, telling him quickly that she loves it as he lays it out, then moves to sit down in the chair beside her bed. 

She sits up straighter, criss-crossing her legs and placing her palms on her knee caps. “When he caught me, though, my lip got stuck on the zipper of his jacket, ripping it open as I fell.”

“Oh, fuck,” he mumbles, grabbing at his own lip. “That must’ve hurt.”

Regina chuckles under her breath, reaching up to slide her fingertip over her scar. “It did,” she nods. “But my dad rushed me to the emergency room and they patched me up. My mother was livid that I’d messed my face up, but,” she shrugs, “my dad always told me it made me look tough.”

Robin smiles, saying he agrees with her father. “And you are tough, so it fits.”

She pauses her story, looking over at him, flattered by his words. She hadn’t felt tough the last month since Jefferson had changed so drastically. “Thank you,” she whispers. She looks down at her hands, bringing them to rest in her lap. “So,” she slumps back into her pillow, “That’s how I got my scar.”

He nods, saying it’s a very interesting story. “Far more interesting than how I got this one,” he says, rolling up the sleeve of his scrubs to reveal a scar along his bicep. She swallows looking at his arm, having the sudden thought of if he works out or not. She snaps herself from that particular line of thinking and asks how he got said scar.

Robin laughs, giving her the short version, saying he and John were quite rebellious in their younger days. “We had these bikes that we just thought were the coolest things, and we were convinced they were faster than all the other kids’ bikes.”

She giggles; she doesn’t know John personally, but from the stories she’s been told, she can fully believe both little boys thinking their bikes were the best. He tells her how their house growing up was in a cul-de-sac and there was this giant (to ten year olds, anyway) hill that led down to their circle of houses. “All the kids that lived on that street would come out each day, and we’d ride our bikes and scooters up and down this hill,” he recounts, motioning with his hand as if it were going up and down the hill. “There was this rule, though. You went up the right side and you’d zoom down the left.”

“Oh, no,” Regina says, shaking her head, already knowing where this story is most likely going. 

Robin nods, “Oh, yes,” he confirms with a dry chuckle. “I was speeding down the hill this one time, felt like I was practically flying,” he tells her, his eyes sparkling at the memory. She smiles at him, lost in his own little world. His eyes are looking over her head at the wall just beyond as she can only imagine he’s seeing that childhood hill in his mind’s eye. “This little boy that had just moved in a few weeks before came teetering up the wrong side on his bike. By time I realized, it was too late. We crashed and I went flying into our neighbor’s yard.”

Regina hisses through her teeth, grimacing at the mental image when he says, “There was a  stick, and I happened to land just right on it. It sliced my arm,” he motions to the long scar again, “before landing just so; stuck out of my skin till John ran over and yanked it out.” He laughs, shaking his head at the memory.

“Ouch,” she laughs, grabbing her own arm in phantom pain.

He finally brings his eyes back to hers, chuckling at the way she grabs her arm. “Yeah, my mum was not happy and wouldn’t let us ride our bikes for a few days until all the parents could meet with that new bloke’s family and tell them the rules of the hill.”

Regina breathes out a light laugh, saying it was probably for the best. He agrees, telling her they never had another accident to that degree after that, thankfully. 

They sit for a while, talking and laughing, staring at their handiwork in the corner. The snow continues to fall and they’ve got another Christmas movie playing in the background. She gets up at one point, slipping on an oversized, long sleeve t-shirt of Tink’s. The temperature has gotten colder in the room with the weather cooling off outside, and he asks if she wants him to turn the heat on. 

“No,” she shakes her head. “I’m too hot natured, it’s like there’s fire burning in my veins,” she laughs, telling him if the heat is turned on then she’ll get too hot. “That’s why layers are good for me,” she says, motioning to the long sleeve shirt she’d just pulled over the regular t-shirt, and the socks accompanied by the knee length yoga pants. “I am very grateful Tink was my size, though, so I didn’t have to spend the last twelve days in a hospital gown.”

He smiles, agreeing, saying he’s glad she’s comfortable. “Although, I wouldn’t have let you stay in that gown. I  _ can _ leave this building. I would’ve gone out and gotten you something to wear.”

Regina smiles back, knowing without a doubt that he would have. 

_ Knock, knock. _

They both turn their gazes to the door, seeing Tink walking in with a tray. “Lunch time!”

Robin checks his watch, apparently realizing how long he’s spent in her room today. She feels guilty, knows he has other patients that he likes to check on and paperwork to do, but she enjoys his company. And him bring in the tree for her was so sweet, she didn’t want to break the moment by reminding him he had a job to do. 

He stands, saying he better go check on everyone else. Tink assures him they’re fine; she and Aurora, another nurse Regina’s gotten to know, had just completed their rounds, but he tells her he still has a job to do with a light hearted chuckle. 

Robin pats her on the forearm, thanking her for a wonderful afternoon and she smiles back, sitting up as Tink brings the tray over, swinging the table attached to her bed to cover her lap. 

He walks out, leaving the girls alone. 

“So,” Tink drawls slyly, looking over to the tree. “Looks like you two had a fun morning.”

Regina smiles, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear before twisting her plate around. She picks up a fork as Tink makes herself at home, like always, hopping onto the end of her bed. Regina smirks, sliding her legs over and out of the way so Tink has more room. 

They talk about the tree, Tink asking what they’ve talked about all day, and Regina rolls her eyes. She shrugs, putting a piece of roll in her mouth. She chews, then swallows before saying they talked about a whole lot of things, being purposefully vague to drive her friend crazy.

“Ugh!” Tink huffs, laughing and swatting at Regina’s leg. “Fine. Be that way. I just won’t tell you my good news.”

Regina cuts into her chicken breast, looking up at Tink from under her lashes. “Good news? Tell me!”

The blonde laughs, reaching over to swipe a strawberry from Regina’s tray and pop it into her mouth. “Well,” she begins, swallowing the sweet fruit. “You know how you and Robin looked up places for you to stay when you get out of here?”

Regina nods, rolling her eyes in disdain. They’d had terrible luck; apparently trying to find an apartment on one weeks notice in the middle of winter was harder than it sounded in her mind. They’d found one place, a very seedy place, that Robin refused to let her even inquire about, claiming he’d keep her at the hospital until spring time if that was the case. “Oh, I remember,” she grumbles. 

Tink smiles sympathetically, telling her she’d found a solution. “What if you lived with me!?”

“Tink,” Regina says through an exhale. “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

The nurse laughs, shaking her head. “Good thing you didn’t ask — I offered!”

Regina rolls her eyes, taking another bite of chicken and rice. The food here is surprisingly good, far better than people always make hospital food out to be. She’s eaten more in here than she has in months, though she’ll probably regret all those rolls and bites of ice cream when she steps on the scale. 

“Are you serious?”

“Yes!” the girl exclaims gleefully. “Think about it…” she goes on, saying she has a two bedroom condo, one of which just sits empty save for the double bed she has in there. “No one ever comes to visit, I don’t even know why I have that extra bedroom.” She says Regina could stay there until she’s ready, until she’s able to find something substantial. Tink’s already arranged for her friend Will’s moving company to go get Regina’s stuff from the house, which she was very thankful for, unsure if she’d be able to go in there alone. This way, she and Tink could pack up her things, take the essentials with her, and Will and his guys could put the rest in a storage unit Regina was going to rent out. 

She finishes her food, reaching over to pick up her cell phone. Pulling up the calendar, she sees that she has two more days left in here. Then they could go pack up her house and move her into Tink’s condo before New Year’s Eve. She knew she was going to go to New York in January to see Mary Margaret if Robin said it was safe, but then after that she could really focus on finding a new place to live. Her company was fine, her top employee, Elsa, was running the Christmas events they had planned before she went into the hospital. They only have two events lined up for January, big events, mind you, that are high paying, but they won’t take a lot of time. She’d have a few week days free to go and look for an apartment. 

“I could probably find something and be out of your hair by Valentine’s Day,” she tells her, looking to Tink apologetically. 

Tink waves her off, “I don’t care! Stay until Fourth of July if you need to!”

The girls laugh, and Regina is once again so grateful for Tink’s friendship. “This is amazing, Tink,” she tells her, “Truly. Thank you so much.” Regina’s eyes well with uncharacteristic tears; she’s normally so good at hiding her emotions. 

She reaches up, swiping beneath her eyelid to make sure no tear has fallen. Tink smiles, making a joke about actually making her cry, and Regina laughs, a  _ Shut up _ falling out of her lips. 

Tink leans over, giving Regina a hug and telling her she just wants to help. “It’ll be fun to have a roommate!” she giggles.

She smiles, thinking how nice it truly will be to live with someone who cares about her. 

{*************************}

Her last day finally rolls around — fourteen long, oddly wonderful, days stuck in this hospital. They’d had to go in two days ago, the day Robin brought her the Christmas tree, with another needle, getting the last bit of excess oxygen sucked out from around her lung. Robin told her that once she could get her incentive spirometer’s yellow device to the top of the machine four times in a row, then he’d feel comfortable releasing her. Her pinky was still splinted together with her ring finger and would need to be for another two weeks, but they didn’t hurt nearly as bad as when she woke up that first night. She’s able to move them around more than she could just a few days ago. Her bruises were all just about healed, the largest gash on her stomach still needing ointment, but over all, she’d made a wonderful recovery. 

She’d blown into the spirometer ten times yesterday, getting it to the top four times, and she’d done it again this morning, reaching her personal goal of six times in a row. She was feeling so much better, and more confident to leave knowing she had a place to stay.

Tink pops her head in as Regina is packing the last of her friend’s clothes into a small duffle bag that Tink had brought from her house. She is wearing the jeans she’d been brought in wearing, which Tink, the fairy godmother that she is, had also taken home (along with Regina’s shirt, undergarments and jacket) and washed for her. She’s also in her red t-shirt and black, thin sweater over it. She’s got her skinny jeans tucked into her tall, black boots and a burgundy scarf wrapped around her neck. It’s the most clothes she’s worn in a while, and she’s already starting to sweat like there’s a heater turned on full blast underneath her clothes. She knows, however, once she walks outside, it’ll be freezing. The snow has been coming down all day, sticking to the ground from what she could tell from her window, coating the town in a heavenly, white cloud. 

It’s almost dinner time, the sun is just starting to set, but she’s finally ready to go. Tink’s shift ends later tonight, so she’ll be able to meet her over at Jefferson’s house to pack some of her belongings. She has Tink’s key for now, though, so she’ll go there first to relax until her friend can bring home some boxes for them to use.

“You about ready?” the nurse asks, coming to help pack some of her clothes. 

Regina sighs, looking around. She’d seen Robin earlier when he came by for his morning rounds, checking on her with his usual flirty eyes and sweet comments. He’d seemed off, however, and she wondered if he’d had a bad night, maybe he hadn’t slept well… or if he didn’t want her to leave, she thought with a smile. 

She nods, rubbing her lips together. “Yeah,” she breathes, saying she needs to go talk with the people downstairs about that payment plan Robin had told her about. 

Tink pauses for a split second, halting her movements to grab the duffle bag. “Oh,” she says, slinging the bag across her shoulder. “Okay.”

Looking over to Tink strangely, Regina squints her eyes, narrowing them. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Tink says quickly, smiling all too innocently. She grabs Regina’s black coat off the back of the chair, handing it to her. 

Regina rolls her eyes, taking the jacket and pulling it on. She tugs at her scarf, readjusting it underneath the fabric of the pea coat, pulling it up so it’ll cover her ears when she’s outside.

She looks around, checking that she hasn’t left anything. Her cell phone is in her pocket, charger returned back to Robin this morning. Her clothes are packed, returned back to Tink. She’s got the clothes on she was admitted wearing, so she must be ready. She glances over to the Christmas tree, walking over to it silently. She runs her fingers over the  _ Joy  _ ornament, fighting back tears as she picks it off the branch, sliding it into her coat pocket. She shouldn’t be sad to leave the hospital, everyone longs to be released from these sterile walls. But she’s more afraid of the unknown out in the real world — Jefferson’s trial, finding a new place to live, having to tell her mother and step-father what’s happened (though with Mary Margaret and her big mouth, she’s positive they already know), and learning to live as  _ Regina _ again. It’s scary, but she’s ready. She feels like she’s leaving here a whole new person, or rather, the old Regina that she was before. 

She sighs, glancing out the window one last time, then back to the tree, remembering last night how Robin had fallen asleep in the leather chair, lights turned out except the tree’s glow illuminating the room while they watched one last cheesy Christmas movie together. He’d brought popcorn this time, as promised, and they’d dumped their Reese’s pieces into it. And, of course, Robin was right. She would never eat popcorn the old way again.

Regina turns, giving Tink a hopeful smile. “Let’s go.”

The girls make their way down the elevator after saying goodbye to Belle and Mrs. Lucas (who, luckily, is getting released in a few days and promised Regina her next lasagna at Granny’s was on the house). They stop by the Oncology ward so she can tell her new little friend goodbye, hugging him tightly and promising to come visit. 

Stepping off onto the ground floor, Tink walks her over to the payment desk, glad that she doesn’t need anyone’s arm supporting her as she walks anymore. “I need to check with them about how much I owe and setting up a payment plan.”

“Mmhmm,” Tink hums, shifting the weight of the bag on her shoulder. Regina narrows her eyes again, turning to talk to the man at the desk. 

“Hi, I’m Regina Mills,” she tells him. “Merlin, is it?” she asks, looking down at his nametag.

The man nods his head, “Yes ma’am, how can I help you?”

She tells him she’s being released and needs to work out a payment plan. Merlin nods again, typing in her name and information into the computer. “Oh,” he says in confusion, looking from Regina to Tink, then back to his computer screen. “It… it says you don’t owe anything.”

Regina’s eyebrow furrow. “What?” she asks in astonishment, shaking her head. “No, that can’t be right. I’ve been here for two whole weeks. I obviously owe something.”

The young man looks down at his computer screen again, leaning in to read something. Glancing back up, he gives her a warm smile. “Well… I don’t know what to tell you, besides the fact that your bill has been taken care of. Merry Christmas!”

She blows out a breath, looking over to Tink. The nurse just stands there, a knowing smile on her lips. “Must be a Christmas miracle,” she says with a wink and a sparkle in her eye.

Rolling her eyes, she questions if Robin did this. She knows that sentimental idiot would do something like this. She’s not one to accept charity, though, and she tells Tink that. “I’m going to pay him back. It’ll just have to be slowly, over the next year.” Her business does well, she makes plenty of money, but with paying Tink rent, affording to move eventually, and paying for a lawyer, her money is going to be tighter than usual, but she  _ will _ pay him back one way or another. 

Tink smiles sweetly, waving Regina off casually as she points to the bag on her shoulder. “I’ll go put this in my locker and I’ll see you at my place later. You have the key right?”

Regina nods, pulling the key out of her purse to show her. Tink nods as well, hugging her again. “Good,” she whispers. “I’ll call you when I get off.”

She smiles, looking from Tink to the front door. She wishes Robin had come to say goodbye, she finds she’s a little hurt that he didn’t. But, it’s not like she’ll never see him again — she has check up appointments she’ll come to, and she’ll be living with one of his best friends, so, she’ll see him. It’s what she keeps telling herself. 

She looks back at Tink again, giving her a small smile and an  _ I’ll see you later _ before walking out the front door.

The snow is falling a little harder now, white flakes dusting into her hair, and there are white Christmas lights hanging from the outside of the hospital and stores across the street. She can hear  _ I’ll Be Home For Christmas _ playing from the speaker of the diner across the road, and she smiles, loving this classic song. She pulls her scarf up over her ears, making her way to the bus stop. Her head is down, fighting off the wind blowing into her face, but she looks up when she hears a cheeky, “You know... as your doctor, I don’t recommend sitting outside in this cold air waiting for a bus with a healing lung.”

She stops walking, turning to face him as a smile lights up her face. She chuckles, shaking her head as she watches him lean back against the back of his car. “Oh, really?” she asks slyly, walking toward him. She’s not sure how long he’s been out here, his jacket has snow dusted on the shoulders and his nose is red, so he must’ve been waiting a while. She smirks at the thought, finding it sweet as she moves even closer.

“Mm,” he says, sticking his hands in his pockets and standing to bounce his shoulders dramatically, knocking the snow from them. She laughs at his antics as he leans his rear against the car again. “I think the only solution is for you to get in my car and let me take you to dinner.”

She tilts her head, narrowing her eyes playfully. She brings a hand up, swiping the snow flurries from her cheek with a terribly concealed smile. “So it’s doctor’s orders that I go out with you?”

He shrugs, pursing his lips around a smirk. “Something like that.” He stands, taking a small step in her direction as he tugs his coat tighter around his body, shivering when a small gust of wind blows by.

“Well,” Regina says with a grin that matches his. She steps closer to his body, wrapping her arms around his neck as his come to rest on her waist. She smiles coyly up at him, pulling him closer as she murmurs hotly, “It’s a good thing I have a smart doctor.”

“Ah,” he chuckles, bringing one hand from around her to wag his finger in the air before resting it back on her hip. “Yes, he’s very concerned with your health.”   
  
She nods in mock seriousness, her brows pinching together as he looks down into her brown eyes. Laughing, Regina raises up on her toes, being brave like he’s made her feel these last few weeks, and presses a kiss to his mouth — hesitant at first, until he presses back, deepening it. It’s not hungry, or rushed, just two people finally giving in to this attraction they’ve felt for so many days on end. He pulls back smiling, and she smiles back. Robin bites his lip, letting a rush of air out through his nose as he runs the tip of it along the length of hers.

He leans down again, cupping her cheek, and she smiles giddily as he presses one, two, three pecks to her lips between their happy giggles.    
  
“So,” she says, looking into his clear, blue eyes. She can see the Christmas lights from across the street glimmering against his face, and she laughs to herself, thinking how this is so reminiscent of one of the many movies they’d watched together lately. Leaning in, she wipes a flake of snow from his nose, letting her thumb trail down the side of his cheek before pressing another quick peck to his lips and asking, “Where to, Doctor Locksley?”

He breathes out one more deep chuckle, shaking his head and looking at her as if he can’t believe she’s real. “Anywhere you’d like,” he tells her sincerely, taking her hand and walking her to the passenger side of his car. “Though I do hear Granny’s makes an amazing lasagna.”

She laughs at that, nodding in agreement as he opens the car door for her. Turning on her heel, she grabs the lapels of his jacket, bringing him a touch closer to press a quick kiss to his dimpled cheek, smiling broadly as she pulls back. “That sounds lovely.”

As she climbs into his car, letting the heat warm her chilled skin, she can’t help but think about everything that has happened the last few weeks, and a sigh escapes her lips as the memories flash through her mind. 

“You okay?” Robin asks as he slides into his seat, pulling the seat belt around his body.

She smiles over at him, humming, “Yeah, just thinking about everything.” She turns her gaze to stare out of the car window, watching as snow piles onto the ground. She sighs, leaning her head against the headrest and tilting her head to look at him. “This Christmas didn’t really turn out how I thought it would.”

“Mm,” he agrees with a sympathetic smile and a nod of his head. “I suppose it didn’t, but despite the circumstances, I’m glad I was able to meet you.”

Regina smiles at that, unable to disagree. Maybe it’s all about timing in life, she muses, watching as Robin turns the heat up another notch before turning on the radio.  _ Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas _ strums through the speakers and she smiles to herself once more, reaching over to take Robin’s hand in hers. She thinks back to Tink’s words from moments ago and grins as he smirks her way, giving their intertwined fingers a light squeeze. This whole situation, everything that’s happened the past two weeks, and more specifically meeting Robin, have been the greatest Christmas gift she could’ve ever imagined receiving, and she can’t wait to see what her future holds.

{*******************************}

_ Thank you SO much to the people who left reviews on the Advent website already. Your words truly brought a smile to my face. This was my first time writing something for the advent calendar, so I’m glad to see people enjoyed it. If this is your first time reading this story (or if you just feel like being nice and leaving a second review on here lol), please let me know what you thought! :) _


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